ACCIDEN-TS, DISEASES, PAEASITES. 159' 



Heguilus has also devised a very ingenious automatic 

 lighting system.* 



It has been noticed that newly-disturbed soil, and soil 

 covered with weeds, are more favorable to the production of 

 white frosts than clean and settled soil ; therefore, the first 

 ploughing must be done so as to prevent the realization of 

 these conditions during the period of the first vegetation of" 

 the vine. 



When a vine has been frosted it should not be abandoned 

 without care during the following year, as certain viticul- 

 turists do, arguing that as little as possible should be done 

 to a vineyard which is not going to bear any crop, but, on 

 the contrary, the vegetation should be forwarded as much 

 as possible by ploughing, &c. The crop of the following 

 year generally pays for this work. 



(B.) HAIL. 



Hail frequently causes considerable damage in vineyards 

 exposed to its action. Young shoots and grapes are some- 

 times broken if the hailstones are large enough, but in any 

 case the lesions always compromise the ultimate develop- 

 ment of the plant. 



When the hailstones come in contact with young her- 

 baceous shoots, during the two first months of their vegetation, 

 they cause such lesions that these remain stunted, and the 

 whole plant has a sickly growth during the following year, 

 and, at the pruning season, the wood left for spurs is in a 

 very bad state. Under these conditions the best thing to- 

 do is generally to prune the green shoots immediately after 

 the frost, as if they were lignified. The dormant buds, which 

 normally would have developed the following spring, shoot 

 and furnish canes almost as good as those grown normally. 

 They even sometimes give grapes if the soil is good and if 

 the pruning was done early enough. 



When the hail falls later on, the canes, better lignified, 

 suffer less, but the crop is compromised ; the berries being 

 injured do not reach their normal development, and when 

 the peduncle of the grape is injured, the whole portion below 

 it dries and falls on the ground. No direct remedy is known 



* Cours complet de Viticulture, p. 484, 4th edit. Montpellier. C. Coulet, 1895. See also- 

 Loc. Cit., p. 482 and 483, le precede Schaal et (Eschlin. 



