Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/139

 has scarcely appeared, when the buds have already begun to burst forth. But the labour of the cultivator has not yet terminated. Three distinct operations are described, by which the branches are successively stopt in their growth, relieved from their useless shoots, and in part, from their leaves. But these are operations which ought not, in all circumstances, to take place; they depend not only on the nature of the climate, but on the state of the weather. Thus, in a climate rather mild than warm, as in a great part of France, the vine-dresser sees the unmeasured length of the shoots, and fears that all the sap will be converted into wood, and that the fruit will be deprived of the share necessary to its maturity. To cause the reflux of the sap towards the grape, he cuts off the extremity of the shoot; this has the wished for effect, but it also escapes in numerous small shoots through the lower eyes, and these are from the same principle, in the same manner, lopped off. When these operations are performed in a colder climate, or a wet season, they are attended with excellent effects, though not in the manner which the operator generally conceives.

The vine, absorbing by its leaves, a much greater portion of its nutritive principles than by its roots, these leaves and branches, if left, would absorb a much greater portion of sap than the heat would