244 
ON THE SHRIVELLING OF GRAPES. 
and gardeners. The disappointment and loss are great indeed to those 
who have vineries, and have been expecting their tables to be supplied 
with good grapes at a certain period, to find, a little before that time 
arrives, that half, or more, of their grapes are destroyed by the disease 
of shanking. The gardener, too, feels quite as much disappointed 
when he finds, after all the attention he has paid them, and all the 
means he has adopted for their preservation, the greater part of the 
grapes under his care attacked with this disease. 
It is the opinion of many persons that this disease proceeds from the 
want of air. This I believe not to be the principal cause of it, but am 
ready to admit that it often helps to promote it. We know that when 
the human frame is attacked with a disease, that its progress or retard¬ 
ation often very much depends on the skill of the medical attendant, 
and the attention of those that are about the afflicted. So it is with 
the disease in grapes. When there is the least appearance of shanking 
or shrivelling, great attention should be paid in giving a good and 
regular supply of air ; for the closer a house is kept, the faster the 
disease will increase; and the higher the temperature, the quicker 
will be the motion of the sap, and the faster the sap will be required 
from the roots of the vine; and when their stock is exhausted, there is 
no hope for the grapes, for they are past recovery. But, on the other 
hand, if attention be paid in giving them a constant and sufficient 
supply of air, in a short time the disease will be very much checked, 
and ultimately subdued. 
I see that your correspondent, Mr. Dale, is inclined to think, with 
some others, that shanking is brought on by damp and an over-heated 
atmosphere. Now I beg to ask those who are of that opinion, why the 
disease does not take place at an earlier stage of the growth of the 
grapes? because, whenever I have seen shanking in grapes, it has 
invariably been about the time they begin to change their colour, or a 
little later. It is very clear, then, that when grapes arrive at this 
stage of their growth, neither the wood nor the pedicles are as tender 
as they are at an earlier period, and are, therefore, I should think, less 
liable to suffer from external causes. Besides, by the time grapes 
begin to change colour, most good grape-growers have ceased syringing, 
steaming, &c. See., when, of course, there cannot be half the damp that 
there is when those processes are in operation. 
It is my opinion that the above are only secondary causes. When 
the vines are weak, every little unfavourable circumstance affects them; 
but when they are strong, and master of their work, (that is, able to 
bring to maturity the crop of grapes they bear,) neither damp nor a 
warm atmosphere will hurt them much. There is one great evil but 
