Inclement Weather, Diseases, Etc. 287 



x 

 veloped anew, and the stocks, becoming languid, will 



be a long time ailing, if they do not die altogether. 



" The health of these vines can only be restored by 

 the immediate development of new and vigorous shoots. 

 If, to this end, the mangled shoots be pruned so as to 

 keep on them five or six buds, the sap will cause them 

 all to develop, but that sap being insufficient for all of 

 them, they will only produce shoots too weak to be 

 productive, and this want of vigor will cause the stocks 

 to languish. 



" It is, therefore, advisable to concentrate all the ac- 

 tion of the sap on a smaller number of eyes, and, to 

 that end, to prune immediately, as is done at the winter 

 pruning, with this difference : that we must now prune 

 down only to one eye, instead of two. In fact, only 

 one single shoot is requisite at the winter pruning. 



" Proceeding thus, all the sap will be concentrated 

 on a small number of eyes, which will give rise to vig- 

 orous shoots. The latter will renew the organs requi- 

 site for the maintenance of the annual growth of the 

 plants, which organs had suffered from the destruction 

 of the leaves. The season is not yet so far advanced, 

 but that these new shoots will have time to mature, and 

 we may hope for a tolerable crop next year. 



" In addition to this operation, it will be as well, im- 

 mediately after the pruning, to give the soil a slight 

 dressing, to assist vegetation by preventing drought. It 

 will also be necessary, to prevent oidium from attacking 

 these young sprouts, by applying sulphur as soon as 

 they shall have reached a length of about eight inches. 

 This latter operation, being indispensable for keeping 

 off that disease which acts more violently at the end of 



