164 MANUAL OF MODERN VITICULTURE. 



berries become red, and if they are not fully developed gene- 

 rally dry rapidly. If, on the contrary, they have reached 

 the turning point, and the scorching has not been very 

 severe, their pedicels become flabby, and the berries become 

 red and do not develop completely.* 



The danger there is of grapes getting scorched when left 

 unsheltered from the action of the direct rays of the sun, 

 explains the custom in the South of France of leaving the 

 shoots spread over the ground instead of tying them up to 

 a stake. The fruit is sheltered and protected against the 

 rays of the sun, and the last summer scarifying must not 

 be done too late so as not to move the shoots. 



Vines with low crowns, having their fruit exposed to the 

 direct reflection of the rays of the sun from the soil, 

 and thus bearing watery fruit with herbaceous peduncles, 

 are particularly liable to scorching. The presence of sulphur 

 seems to favour this phenomenon, therefore we must take 

 care not to sulphur during hot weather unless it is possible, 

 as in certain regions of Algeria, to simply deposit the sul- 

 phur on the soil without spreading it over the vines, and still 

 obtain the same results. 



Mares indicates as follow the conditions favorable to 

 scorchingf : " When the weather is still and very dry, and 

 if the atmosphere is influenced by currents from the north 

 or north-west, if the temperature in the shade reaches 33 C. 

 (92 Fahr.) the grapes are scorched on the south side where- 

 ever they have been struck vertically by the sun's rays."J 

 The same author states that scorching not only diminishes 

 the quantity of crop, but also spoils the quality. 



(H.) GBAPE-ROT. 



The grapes of c6pages bearing watery berries having a 

 thin skin sometimes rot when the autumn is damp and rainy, 

 and when the vineyard is in a low situation. This accident 

 is frequently produced by a fungus, the Botrytis cinerea, 

 which seems to cause modifications in the colouring matter 

 to which the casse of wine is due. It is generally called 

 grey-rot. Low vines are more liable to this fungus. The 

 best remedies are drainage and the formation of a high crown 

 on the vines, and, if these precautions are not sufficient, 



* Henri Mares ; Des vignes du midi de la France, Paris, 1863, Loc. Cit., page 353. 



t Id. Loc. Cit., page 352. 



t The directions are, of course, reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. [Transls.] 



