THE GRAPE IN KANSAS. 13 



ing downward of new tissue may soon be noticed above the girdle. If the ring 

 of bark taken off was not too wide, it may heal over, and' the elaborated food 

 again begins to be carried downward to nourish the parts below. Unless the 

 wound heals over, the parts immediately below the girdle suffer for want of food, 

 and eventually die, thus destroying the whole branch. 



Regarding the pinching of vines, since all the food of the plant is elaborated 

 in the leaves, it would, at first thought, seem advisable to encourage unlimited 

 growth and the formation of as many leaves as possible. As a matter of fact, 

 however, judicious summer pinching of fruiting shoots is often advisable. Some- 

 times the tendency seems to be to center the energies of the plant in producing 

 mere length of wood growth, and the energies of the plant are diverted away from 

 nourishing the fruit and centered upon the production of leaves and canes. In 

 such cases pinching back the growing point often checks wood growth and more 

 of the elaborate food goes to nourish the fruit. Reducing the number of leaves 

 too much, however, will undoubtedly prevent the elaboration of sufficient food, 

 and the whole plant, fruit and all, will suffer. It is merely a question of so bal- 

 ancing the treatment that enough foliage will remain and still not encourage the 

 vine to run to wood. The amount of pruning or pinching necessary varies with 

 the variety, and also depends upon the soil, climate, and other conditions; hence, 

 the grower should get the principles well fixed in mind and then adjust the treat- 

 ment to suit his conditions. 



GIRDLING GRAPE-VINES. 



Among the many artificial expedients for making plants do as one wishes, that 

 of girdling or ringing the grape, which is now and then practiced by horticultur- 

 ists, is not the least curious and interesting. It consists of the entire removal of 

 the bark just below the fruit cluster about a month before the time of ripening. 

 Its effect is to hasten the ripening by a week or two, and to increase the size of 

 the fruit. The sap ascends through the pores of the wood and sustains growth, 

 but on descending the elaborated sap, which passes down between the wood and 

 the bark, can go no lower than the point where the vine has been girdled. It 

 stops there and goes to feeding the bunch of grapes growing at that point. Of 

 course, ringing is a thing that can only be done to a limited extent, and the ex- 

 periment can only be tried on scattering branches. It is evident that all that 

 part of the vine below the cut will suffer the following year, and that the entire 

 vine itself would be permanently injured and perhaps destroyed if the practice 

 were made at all general. As an interesting experiment, however, to be made on 

 branches that one thinks of removing anyhow, a trial of ringing will furnish an 

 interesting study to those curious in such matters. 



GIRDLING GRAPE-VINES. 



The opinions of grape growers vary as to the advantage of girdling the grape- 

 vine to induce it to color and ripen its fruit earlier. Most of those who live in 

 the best grape-growing locations are opposed to the practice, as it secures earli- 

 ness and greater size of fruit at the expense of quality. The operation is per- 

 formed by cutting a circle back of the new shoot below the first bunch, after the 

 grapes have set. Before that time the new wood will not have firm enough bark 

 to be ringed. The effect of ringing the branch is to stop the flow of sap back- 



