48 THE DISEASES VINES ARE SUBJECT TO. 



plant. This would give such vigour to the roots as 

 would react on the branches in such a way as to 

 yield both good bunches and berries, while at the 

 same time a border 20 or 30 feet wide would afford 

 them sustenance for many years. 



Where there is ample scope for the roots to run 

 unchecked and uninjured for 150 or 200 feet, then by 

 all means adopt the one-vine or "extension" system, 

 inarching or grafting on to this patriarch all the 

 varieties required. 



THE DISEASES VINES ARE SUBJECT TO. 



In the front rank of these stands the disease known to 

 gardeners as "shanking." This great enemy to grape- 

 growing makes its appearance just as the grapes are 

 changing from their acid to their saccharine state, and 

 it arrests the transformation at once, and the berry re- 

 mains perfectly acid, and becomes shrivelled in a short 

 time. All that the eye can detect in the case is, the 

 decay of the little stem or shank of the berry ; and what 

 appears strange, it more frequently attacks grapes that 

 are not forced early than those that are. Many able 

 physiologists have attempted to explain its cause and 

 cure, though as yet with but little success ; and it is 

 with diffidence that I enter on a path that has been trod 

 by such men. I will attempt to point out, first, what 

 I think its principal cause; — I say principal, because I 

 consider that there may be several concurrent causes 

 aiding the chief one, such as over-cropping, destruction 

 of the foliage by red-spider, or any other cause ; and, 

 in the second place, to point out what I think the most 

 likely remedy. 



I will describe the circumstances under which 



