Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/154

 not confined to the leaves and buds it destroys, for wherever it has left its slime, the transpiration of the leaf is stopt.

The egg of the vine-worm is supposed to be deposited by the butterfly, in the berry, at a very early stage of its existence. The puncture made by it is extremely minute, and sometimes pierces the stone to a considerable depth. The environs of the puncture, are of a bluish colour, the skin smooth, and beneath this skin the pulp is changed to a hard substance. The insect is developed in, and at first nourished at, the expense of the berry, where the egg is deposited, but by and by, it visits the neighbouring berries of the bunch, and establishes a communication between them, by a sort of thread which it spins. This, next to wet weather, is one of the principal causes of the rotting of the fruit; and if the bunch has only in part rotted, the silky web of the worm may generally be traced about the decayed grapes. The extreme minuteness of this insect, and the agility of its motions, make its destruction a very difficult matter. When the insects, which are called cut buds, from their cutting the shoot half through, have deposited their eggs in the leaves, which may be distinguished by being curled or rolled up, it is generally well worth the trouble, to cut the leaves off and have them burned.