THE GRAPE VINE. 131 



" I will describe the circumstances under which shank- 

 ing is most generally met with. The most frequent 

 of these is when the roots of the vine have descended 

 into a cold wet suhsoil ; but it is also met with where 

 the roots are not down in the subsoil, but where they 

 are growing vigorously, towards autumn especially, 

 in a rich, and what many would term a well-made 

 border, where they receive plenty of liquid manure, 

 where the foliage in the house is fine, the wood strong, 

 and the young roots, if sought for, will be found 

 pushing along in the rich earth in September, like 

 the points of a goose's quiU. ... I must now 

 describe what I consider took place in the case on 

 hand. The vines made great strong young roots in 

 this rich soil late in autumn ; they were not short, 

 branching, fibry roots, but soft, like the roots of some 

 bulb ; and by the time the action of the leaves had 

 ceased, these roots were anything but ripe, and they 

 all perished during the winter rains, back to the old 

 stem roots from which they sprang. The vines, never- 

 theless, have a given amount of stored-up sap in them 

 though they have lost their active roots, and they 

 are pruned and started, say, the following February. 

 While this stored-up sap lasts, they grow vigorously 

 enough, but a period arrives when it is exhausted ; 

 and the new sap comes but slowly, for the old roots 

 that remain are just beginning, through the action of 

 the foliage, to start into life a fresh set of young roots, 

 that are able as yet to supply but little. This takes 

 place when the berry is passing through the stoning 

 period — always a crisis with fruit of any kind — and 

 the consequence is a thorough failure of the crop from 

 shanking, either resulting directly from want of proper 

 nourishment at this important period, or from some 



