200 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



I have been troubled with a worm, which gets in the 

 grape when ripe, and often destroys a whole bunch, bor- 

 ing from one berry to another. It is a little grey maggot, 

 about one eighth of an inch in length. In the vineyard 

 formed last spring, I planted three thousand vines, all 

 Isabellas. Formerly, I used to be careful in my summer 

 pruning, but after experiment, I was convinced that the 

 vines are best let alone, as the leaves got so much injured 

 by storms and insects, that all that are left are needed for 

 ripening the fruit. I therefore train up the growing 

 shoots to the trellis, and as the side-shoots and stragglers 

 push out, so as to be in the way, I simply trim them 

 off with a j)air of hedge shears. 



" I have been carrying out the plan I told you of last 

 fall .'--trie covering of the ground of ray vineyard with 

 tan, shavings, and pine leaves, and the advantages ex- 

 pected to be derived from it are as follows : that it will 

 keep the weeds from growing, and save the necessity of 

 ploughing ; it will prevent the lower bunches of grapes 

 from getting spattered with the earth, when it rains, 

 which has always been a serious trouble when the earth 

 was kept loose by ploughing ; it will keep the earth cool, 

 and prevent an early starting of the buds, which some- 

 times causes serious loss from late frosts ; and, lastly I 

 hope it may prove, in some degree, a guard against those 

 insects which breed in the ground, and are most formid- 

 able enemies. 



" Horace W. S. Cleveland.* 



" Oatlands, Burlington, 1848." 



* This gentleman has been ao troubled by a small green worm, -irhich 

 iufested the bunclies of grapes, that he has almost given up the cultivation, 

 in the open ground. ] 35.^. 



