Inclement Weather, Diseases, Etc. 257 



roots will be destroyed. It is possible, that in some very 

 loose soils, the frost may destroy the roots of such young 

 vines, without their being heaved and exposed, and the tops 

 will have escaped, and may even push forth their leaves, to 

 wither for want of support from these dead roots. 



Such a result has frequently followed the fall planting of 

 young vines, and the variety has then been condemned as ten- 

 der ; whereas, if they had been carefully protected until spring, 

 and then set out and well tended, they would have become 

 established in the soil, and enabled to resist the damaging ef- 

 fects of frost.] 



When the frost has taken effect on the shoots of the 

 vine, the crop for that year is lost ; for, we know that 

 the new shoots coming on the old wood, seldom, if. 

 ever, bear grapes. It even happens, at times, that a 

 crop is not had until two years after such an accident. 

 The only operation to be performed on the plants at- 

 tacked by winter frosts consists in pruning and renew- 

 ing them a little below the point where they have been 

 frozen. The stock is then re-formed by means of the 

 new shoots. 



Spring Frosts. The late frosts are the most usual foe, 

 and the most to be feared, for the vineyards of the 

 northern and middle region, when the frosts occur at the 

 season of the budding of the vine that is from the I5th 

 of April to the I5th of May. The young shoots are 

 then more or less affected, and the year's crop is de- 

 stroyed. It is true that, sometimes, by the side of the 

 shoot destroyed by frost, we see one or two new shoots 

 with fruit-branches ; but this only occurs when the 

 shoots have been frozen on their first appearance, and 

 have, as yet, absorbed only a very small quantity of sap. 

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