3?10 On a Method of hastening the Maturation of Grapes. 



lower part of the wall, in which case one or two shoots may 

 be left. 



Grapes growing in forcing houses are equally improved in 

 point of size and flavour, as well as made to ripen earlier by 

 taking away circles of bark : the time for doing this, is when 

 the fruit is set, and the berries are about the size of small 

 shot. The removed circles may here be made wider than 

 on Vines growing in the open air, as the bark is sooner re- 

 newed in Forcing Houses, owing to -the warmth and mois- 

 ture in those places. Half an inch will not be too great a 

 width to take off in a circle from a vigorous growing Vine, 

 but I do not recommend the operation to be performed at 

 all on weak trees. 



I think that this practice may be extended to other fruits, 

 so as to hasten their maturity, especially Figs, in which there 

 is a most abundant flow of returning sap ; and it demon- 

 strates to us, why old trees are more disposed to bear fruit 

 than young ones. Miller informs us, that the Vineyards 

 in Italy are thought to improve every year by age, till they 

 are fifty years old. It therefore appears to me that nature, in 

 the course of time, produces effects similar to what I have 

 above recommended to be done by art. For, as trees be- ' 

 come old, the returning vessels do not convey the sap into 

 the roots, with the same facility they did when young ; thus 

 by occasionally removing circles of bark, we only anticipate 

 the process of nature ; in both cases a stagnation of the true 

 sap is obtained in the fruiting branches, and the redundant 

 nutriment then passes into the fruit. 



I have sometimes found, that after the circle of bark has 

 been removed, a small portion of the inner bark has adhered to 



