194 Vineyard Culture. 



ter, and should kill the beautiful Haltica chalybea while we 

 are disbudding our vines. 



" The second division of the subject, or pruning to effect 

 the greatest development of the foliage, and to produce new 

 leaves during the season upon the fruit-bearing branches, is 

 accomplished by systematic, judicious, and early pinching-in 

 of the ends of the shoots. This operation should be done as 

 soon as it is seen which are the best and strongest, and be- 

 fore the blossoming of the vine — so soon, indeed, as the 

 bunches can be seen. It is often practiced at the same time 

 as the rubbing out — at least on t?ie strongest shoots. This 

 pinching is a very simple matter. It is done with the thumb- 

 nail and the fore-finger ; the point only should be removed 

 — sometimes one leaf, sometimes two, or even three, are left 

 beyond the outer cluster of grape-buds ; but to produce the 

 best effect, the former point is advised. 



" It has been observed that an early and close pinching is 

 always followed by a remarkable development of the thrift 

 and size of the foliage ; the leaves attain double the size of 

 those on an unpinched shoot, and the aggregate of the evap- 

 orating surface presented by them will be greater than that of 

 all the leaves that would have been produced by the shoot if 

 left alone. But this is not all. At the base or axil of each 

 of these enlarged leaves, the new buds will become very prom- 

 inent, and will soon burst, and produce laterals. These are 

 again pinched, at one or two leaves, and with the same effect, 

 that of enlarging the foliage. We thus have a new crop 

 of these valuable evaporating organs, or lungs, as they have 

 been fancifully called, and at a season when it may be very 

 desirable to the health of the plant that a supply of fresh fo- 

 liage should be on hand, for the older leaves are often injured 

 by storms, by insects, or by accident, and their renewal in this 

 manner will be very opportune. 



" This treatment is very different from the practice of many 



