Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/152

 running, frequently indicates, by the aspect of its leaves and fruit, that it suffers in some of its parts. This unhealthiness may arise from a variety of circumstances; as, the having been pruned at an improper time, or unskillfully, the shoot not having been taken off close to the old wood. It may, though in general vigorous, be unhealthy in some part, which may have been injured by the hail, (and this ought to be removed above the injury,) or by the tie which bound it to the pole not having been removed before the winter, and thus allowing the snow to lodge, and cause clefts and ulcers, which ought to have been removed at the time of pruning.

An excess of nourishment is frequently the cause of unhealthiness in the vine. When fresh dung, containing an abundance of viscous matter is spread on the soil, it is taken up by the capillary tubes, in such abundance, as to obstruct the canals of the sap, and the vine languishes by a sort of indigestion. The remedy in this case is, to spread a quantity of rubbish or sand on the soil, to correct its over richness.

When a vine has been propagated by a layer, it also frequently happens, that the decaying parts of the old wood still connected with it, furnish a sort of morbid sap which is most injurious to it. In this case, it is necessary to dig to the roots and