Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/138

 tween two plants, to which the branches are fastened, by twigs of osier; and too little care is generally bestowed, in giving a proper direction to the branches.

The natural course of the sap is vertical, and when this is assisted by the direction of the branches, it rushes with astonishing force to the extremities of the young shoots, where it is wasted in the production of new and useless wood; when, on the contrary, the branches are fixed horizontally, or even in a semicircular position, its natural course is interrupted and it is the better elaborated, as it circulates with less vehemence.

The direction in which the trellis extends, is not a matter of indifference. Where the vines are subject to be injured by frost, their arrangement to face the east, would only expose them to the greater danger from the rising sun. But, when exposed to the south, the frost has already yielded to the heat of the atmosphere, before they receive his direct rays. In hotter countries, again it would appear necessary, rather to protect the fruit from the burning influence of the sun's rays, as at Madeira, where the vines are trained over a low horizontal lattice work, under which, the fruit ripens in the shade.

The vines being thus pruned, and attached to their supports, the first of the fine weather has