Supporting the Vine. 167 



The amount of manual labor, already so inadequate to 

 this branch of cultivation, is considerably increased by 

 the staking and unstaking of the vines. The staking is 

 a fatiguing operation for the laborers. Moreover, the 

 laborers trample down the ground round each plant, and 

 neutralize the effects of the first dressing. The stocks, 

 or the principal roots of the plants, are often mangled by 

 the stake driven at the foot of each ; the hole made by 

 the stake leaves, on its removal in the fall, an easy ac- 

 cess to the winter frosts, which may affect the roots ; 

 the rough and splintered surface of the stakes, more- 

 over, gives shelter to the eggs of certain insects inju- 

 rious to the vine, and especially to those of its most 

 dreaded foe, the Pyralis. These eggs are hatched in 

 the spring, and passing from the stakes on to the buds, 

 the larvae there occasion incalculable mischief. Fur- 

 thermore, the shoots are massed against these stakes, 

 close around the bunches of grapes, and deprive them 

 of the sun's action,which exerts so great an influence on 

 the quality of the produce. The shoots, themselves, 

 thus buried in the leaves, ripen their wood badly, and 

 the produce suffers in quantity. Finally, staking gives 

 rise to a yearly expenditure, amounting, on an average, 

 to $14.50 per acre. 



[The estimates of M. Du Breuil, appear too low, on the 

 one hand, and too high, on the other. The price of his 

 stakes appears high to us, and he assigns a greater durability 

 to them than we should think such kinds of wood were en- 

 titled to. However, we have not tried the removal of these 

 supports, every fall, for the sake of sheltering them from the 

 exposure in winter. That may make a difference. 



