12 THE GRAPE IN KANSAS. 



will have a little time to dry and season at the ends, or a great loss of sap will be 

 the result, and your vine will be weakened thereby, and your crop will be smalB 

 in quantity as well as quality. 



Oftentimes in the early spring we have a very warm spell for two or even three 

 weeks, and the sap will start to go up the vine and buds will begin to swell, and 

 will look as if they were ready to open in a few days more. Then it will come on 

 cold again, but the sap will not go down again until it has put forth leaves, as 

 nature's laws have so provided. Then, if you cut your vines there is a loss in 

 sap and vitality, which causes the vine to be injured. When the branches start 

 to grow they should be trained up on building or trellis, and not allow more than 

 two good clusters on a single shoot ; if you do they will be small, and will not fill 

 out well and be more or less imperfect. After the little grapes have set, then 

 the top end of the shoot containing the grapes should have about two inches 

 pinched off. This will check the growth of the vine and throw more strength 

 and vigor into the clusters and make the grapes larger and better. 



GIRDLING AND PINCHING GRAPES. 

 By J. C. WHITTEN, Columbia, Mo. 



The subject of girdling and of summer pinching of the vine is a sufficiently 

 large one, and discussion of it may not be amiss. 



We have in the experimental vineyard, at this writing (July 30), girdled grape 

 shoots bearing fruit that is turning color, while the fruit on normal shoots of the 

 same vine is entirely green. Girdled peach branches are bearing fruit that is 

 much larger and nearer ripe than normal branches on the same tree. Not only 

 is fruit larger and earlier on branches of vines and trees that were girdled this 

 summer, but certain apple trees on the experimental grounds bore blossoms and 

 set fruit this year on branches that were girdled last year, while none of their 

 normal branches had any flowers at all. The effects of girdling a fruit-bearing 

 branch to increase^the size and hasten the ripening of its fruit, and of girdling a 

 non- fruitful branch to throw it into bearing the next year, are so well known that 

 in some places the practice of girdling is quite common. At shows, fruit from 

 girdled branches is barred from competition with normally grown fruit, on ac- 

 count of the fact that it is expected to be of unusual size, though the branch, 

 was destroyed in producing it. 



Commercially, girdling is not much practiced, because, as noted by Mr. Bent, 

 the branch just below the girdle is not properly nourished and weakens or some- 

 times dies from the effects of this operation. The reasons for the above will be 

 understood if briefly stated, as^follows: 



The sap, when taken up by the roots, is not ready to directly nourish the tree r 

 but is carried upward through the sap-wood to the leaves, where a part of the 

 water is evaporated into the atmosphere. In the leaves the food materials in the 

 sap and the gases taken in from the air are elaborated (or digested), and are then 

 ready to be distributed over the tree and to produce growth. This elaborated 

 food is carried back in the growing or cambium layer to nourish all parts of the 

 tree. A girdle does not injure the sapwood, and hence does not retard the up- 

 ward movement of the crude sap. The same girdle does, however, destroy the 

 soft-growing layer just inside the bark, and prevents the return of the elaborated 

 food, which collects in the girdled branch and causes unusual growth, not only 

 of the branch above the girdle, but also of any fruit that may be growing on it. 

 As soon as a girdle is made, the plant attempts to heal over the wound. A press- 



