126 



As the season advances, we shall now notice that the shoots 

 near the top of the uprights push much stronger than those 

 below, and should be pinched off, leaving two or three leaves 

 beyond the bunch of fruit, or blossom. Those at the lower 

 part can be left to grow a few weeks longer, thereby gaining 

 strength ; after this they can be cut baclf to a few leaves — say 

 three beyond the fruit. Now, if the vine had been allowed to 

 take its natural course, we begin to see the difficulty ; — two or 

 three of the upper buds, on the uprights, would have taken 

 the whole strength of the vine from the lower ones, and grown 

 perhaps ten or twenty feet, and which we should have been 

 obliged again to cut off; but by the other mode, the sap was 

 equalized over the whole vine, each shoot getting its fair sup 

 ply, and the lower ones consequently stronger, and with better 

 and larger foliage to feed its fruit, than if the vine had taken 

 its natural course. The pruning of large established vines 

 should be done soon after the fall of the leaf, previous to laying 

 them down. By pruning at this period (say November,) the 

 sap collected by the roots stimulates the buds, which will cause 

 them to push earlier in the following spring — a matter of im- 

 portance where the Summers are short. 



The only course to pursue with old vines that have been 

 neglected, is to choose branches containing the best and ripest 

 wood, cutting back all side shoots to one or two buds, and 

 leaving three or four feet, more or less, of the new wood upon 

 the end of the branch ; these branches, after being shortened 

 and trimmed, must now be laid along the trellis, eighteen or 

 twenty inches apart. If there are more branches than is 

 necessary, they must be cut away. 



MILDEW OF THE GRAPE. 



The oidium of the vine is supposed to be a variety of mil- 

 dew which generally attacks the under surface of the leaf, 

 and is presumed to follow after rains or a continuance of cold, 

 damp days, especially if these conditions follow a period of 



