Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/153

 remove the cause of the evil, as well as any of the roots which may seem to have suffered from it.

Notwithstanding the care of the workman, it often happens, that the stock is wounded by his instrument, and the sap, bleeding from the wound, is the cause of the languishing state of the plant. This is remedied by a plaster of clay, or soot, mixed with soft soap; if this is not sufficient, a cautery of hot iron is sometimes applied; and, if all other means should fail, in stopping the course of the sap, the wound should be cleaned, and the moisture removed by a sponge, after which, a plaster of pitch, spread on a piece of bladder, is is tied firmly upon it.

Having escaped the intemperance of the seasons, and the unskilfulness, or carelessness of the cultivator, the vine has yet to fear the effects of insects gnawing its roots, or preying on its fruits or foliage. The principal of these are, a sort of caterpillar, called, from its preference to the vine, vine-worm, and several sorts of insects which, in the state of larvæ, subsist at the expense of the roots; or, in their perfect state, cut the tender shoot half through, that the leaves, in which they deposit their eggs may be more pliable; or pierce the leaves with holes as numerous as those of a riddle: and the common garden snail, whose mischief is