make the fruit look better, and be of interest to
the amateur cultivator, I will describe the operation for their
benefit.

[Illustration: FIG. 21
NORTON'S VIRGINIA--_Berries 1/3 diameter._]

It can be performed either on wood of the same season's growth, or on
that of last year, but in any case only upon such as can be pruned away
the next fall. If you desire to affect the fruit of a whole arm or
cane, cut away a ring of bark by passing your knife all around it, and
making another incision from a quarter to half an inch above the first,
taking out the intermediate piece of bark clean, down to the wood. It
should be performed immediately after the fruit is set. The bunches of
fruit above the incision will become larger, and the fruit ripen and
color finely, from a week to ten days before the fruit on the other
canes. Of course, the cane thus girdled, cannot be used for the next
season, and must be cut away entirely. The result seems to be the
consequence of an obstruction to the downward flow of the sap, which
then develops the fruit much faster.

Ripening can also be hastened by planting against the south side of a
wall or board fence, when the reflection of the rays of the sun will
create a greater degree of warmth.

But nothing can be so absurd and unnatural than the practice of some,
who will take away the leaves from the fruit, to hasten its ripening.
The leaves are the lungs of the plants; the conductors and elevators of
sap; and nothing can be more injurious than to take them away from the
fruit at the very time when they are most needed. The consequence of
such an unwise course will be the wilting and withering of the bunches,
and, should they ripen at all, they will be deficient in flavor. Good
fruit must ripen _in the shade_, only thus will it attain its full
perfection.

Another practice very injurious to the vines is still in practice in
some vineyards, and cannot be too strongly condemned. It is the
so-called "cutting in" of the young growth in August. Those who
practice it, seem to labor under the misapprehension that the young
canes, after they have reached the top of the trellis, and are of the
proper length and strength for their next year's crop, do not need that
part of the young growth beyond these limits any more, and that all the
surplus growth is "of evil." Under the influence of this idea they arm
themselves with a villainous looking thing called a bill-hook, and cut
and slash away at the