832 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



In August the leaves are thinned. This work does not take place 

 every year throughout the department, particularly in those vineyards 

 which only produce common wine. Great attention should be bestowed 

 upon this work, in order to avoid too much exposure to the sun, and at 

 the same time aid maturation. 



Pruning is certainly the most important operation that the vine claims 

 from its care-takers. On this depends not only, in a great measure, the 

 abundance of the crop, but especially the health of the plant. It takes 

 place generally from the end of the fall of the leaf until the commence- 

 ment of the hard frosts. Before this period the wood is not sufficiently 

 ripe, and would cause the loss of a parb of the sap. Later the cicatrice 

 arising from the pruning would not have time to heal up before the sap 

 ascends, and a serious flow would occur in spring. For some years past 

 the vines have been considerably tried by spring frosts ; it has there- 

 fore been judged wise, even at the risk of losing a small portion of the 

 sap, to prune as late as possible, in order to retard the shoot. This is 

 customary in the Burgundy vineyards. 



It is recommended to vine-dressers, when opera ting, to have with them 

 a little box of some fatty liquid, and to put a little of such on each 

 wound made by the pruning, above all on the old wood, so as to pro- 

 tect it from the changes of temperature, which often cause the interior 

 of the plant to decay. The pruning is conducted in two fashions : with 

 a pruning-knife or with vine-scissors ; this latter instrument is very ex- 

 peditious. But in the Medoc, and many other places, they prefer the 

 pruning-knife, with which the judicious vine-dresser carries on his work 

 better, without injuring the wood, cutting and paring here and there, 

 where he thinks fit to do so, making incisions, lifting a very light piece 

 of wood, etc. The vine-shears are preferable to the pruning-knife when 

 cutting young vines which have no thick wood to take up*. I shall not 

 undertake here a treatise on the pruning of the vine, or an appreciation 

 of the different modern systems. Such details would require a volume, 

 and are consequently out of my compass. The value of these different 

 systems is so intimately connected with the nature of the soil and its 

 situation, and with the nature and vigor of the plant, that I can not go 

 further than commending practice, observation, and intelligence as the 

 best guides to the vine-dresser. To the general information already 

 given I may add the following fundamental principles: 



Charge the vine only in accordance with its age and vigor ; equalize 

 the burden of the different arms of the vine, so that one side should not 

 bear all the sap at the expense of the other; carefully save on each 

 plant the short cuts which are intended to become fruit-bearing branches 

 for the next year, and which, being low shoots, keep down the vine, 

 which has a tendency to spring up. 



In theMe'doc the vine is planted in rows which, according to the vine- 

 yards, vary between 180 to 300 feet in length; the latter is seldom used, 

 on account of the difficulty of transporting manure, gathering the grapes, 



