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that is, vines that are low and support themselves without propping, 

 girdling too often repeated, would be fatal. For low vines, the inci- 

 sion should be made on the wood of the preceding year, below every 

 fruit-bearing shoot. The wood above the incision profits by it, while 

 that which is below, together with the root, suffers : but, as the part 

 which has profited at the expense of the rest, becomes a root next 

 year, by layering, with the strongest fibres springing from the barky 

 ring, because that is the thickest part, there is, finally, nothing lost 

 by it, but rather a gain. 



In tall-stock training the girdling is done at the spring of the bend ; 

 that is, the fruit-bearing branches that are twisted to stop the elonga- 

 tion of the wood, and prevent the descent of the sap, have the incision 

 made just below the wrench. In stool-vines, it is the fruit-bearing 

 stem itself that is girdled, unless the shoot is too young and slender 

 to allow any operation. If every one of the stems were to be girdled, 

 the new wood would profit at the expense of the old wood, and as, 

 (unless they be layered,) all that new wood will be pruned off 

 next spring, the Vine would suffer a great waste of substance 

 without any sort of use : and would soon sink under such unna- 

 tural handling. It has been said that girdling can only be an 

 agreeable occupation for an amateur or market-gardener speculating 

 in early fruit ; a physiologist studying the secret springs of nature; 

 or an enlightened agriculturist, seeking remedies for an irregular dif- 

 fusion of the sap ; all such, finally, as can afford to sacrifice branches 

 or even the plants themselves, for the sake of their profit or instruc- 

 tion. On account of this character of inutility having been imputed 

 to girdling, experiments have been undertaken in several vineyards. I 

 shall give them as they have been transmitted to me. 



In the department of Cote d'Or, shoots of the Pine-cone grape (Pi- 

 neau) and Gamet, girdled in the spring, yielded bunches more filled 

 with berries and those of a larger kind and more sugary flavour, than 

 the rest : they also ripened twenty days sooner than those on the 

 neighbouring plants that were not girdled ; — but it was remarked, 

 especially at Beaune, that the juice gave but slight indications of 

 tartaric acid, the presence of which is thought to assist in the preser- 

 vation of wines. It was by some, recalled to mind, that girdling had 

 been formerly in use in that department, under the title of controlling ^ 

 but was given up on account of its weakening the stocks and 

 causing the wine that was made from them to be unfit for keeping. 

 In the department of L Tonne, several rows were submitted to the 

 operation, alternately, every other row being left untouched. The 

 consequence was, that none of the girdled Vines bUghted, and the 

 fruit on them ripened ten days earlier. 



