MANAGEMENT OF FKUITING VINES. 117 



plants. Tlie roots being excited into vigoious action 

 by tlie enormous draft made n|)on them, find them- 

 selves suddenly without a channel through which 

 their unelaborated product can find vent ; the balance 

 of product and supply is upset and the fruit is filled 

 with crude, ill-digested sap, thus causing it to be 

 unripe and ill-flavored. But by early stopping the 

 shoots, and thus preventing the further production of 

 leaves and wood, we render summer pruning, that is, 

 the removal of superabundant leaves and wood, unne- 

 cessary ; no sudden check is given to the vines, the sap 

 is fully elaborated as fast as it is supplied, and the 

 fruit receiving an extra supply of properly prepared 

 sap (which w^ould otherwise have gone to the produc- 

 tion of wood and leaves) is enlarged in size and 

 improved in flavor. 



That the leaves are the great agents in the elabora- 

 tion of sap, was fully proved by the experiments of 

 Hales, who forced orange flower-water into the vessels 

 of a vine, with a view to impart its flavor to the fruit. 

 The experiment was unsuccessful as to its ostensi- 

 ble object, but not as to its concomitant results; for he 

 traced the flavor through the stem and branches to 

 the leaves, but no further ; there it wa* decomposed, 

 and doubtless returned to the wood and fruit in the 

 form of sap. 



In a few weeks, or perhaps days, after being 



