CHAPTER XIV. 



OF TOPPING, 



This is an operation which is performed on the shaots and lateral 

 wood, after they have been fastened to the prop and are from two 

 and a half to three feet long. The young shoot is brittle, and so is 

 generally broken at the joint, or else cut with the pruning knife ; 

 it should be cut about an inch above the knot and care should be 

 taken to keep the leaf just below it. It is always done at the same 

 time as the training, and is left to the skill of the women, though 

 wrongly so : — because the operation is sometimes useless and even 

 to a certain point injurious ; at other times it is necessary, to give 

 play to the sap and accelerate its influx in the direction of the fruit 

 It takes but little time or trouble to do it well. On Vines trained 

 along low trellises, all the strong shoots should be topped at the 

 ninth or tenth joint ; perhaps a little higher or lower according to 

 their situation. The shoots that gad above the props are topped, 

 to allow them no higher than their props ; and all feeble new wood 

 is topped at the seventh or eighth joint. If it has not reached that 

 number of joints it must be let alone until the second topping, in the 

 first week of the month of August. 



The second operation requires more care than the first ; it consists 

 in cutting at the second joint all the sub-shoots that have sprouted 

 out on the already topped new wood ; it is done to force the sap to 

 retrograde and aid more efiiciently in strengthening the stem, ma. 

 turing the fruit, and predisposing the lower part of the yearling 

 wood to form fruit-buds. It is sometimes delayed till the vintage 

 is near at hand, especially if the weather is very hot and dry. 



There are some stocks that will require to be topped three times 

 in the season ; the third topping is done when the grapes begin to 

 turn, never before. 



The toppings are given to horses, cows, and sheep, who eat them 

 very greedily ; but as they are very heating, it is best to spread and 

 dry them and then stack them for winter fodder. This fodder has & 

 sweet and high relish to cattle. 



