_Suckering._--The object of this process is to relieve the raisin-vine of superfluous wood before the latter has had time to draw on the strength of the vine and deprive it of the elements necessary to support the fruit-bearing branches. The proper time for suckering is early in the spring, when the young wood is yet tender and easily broken. With a hard and flat piece of wood, the lower suckers are dug out from below the ground, while the upper suckers may be broken by hand. A sucker must be understood to be any branch which does not produce fruit at a time when the vine is old enough to bear. In strong and moist soil and on strong vines even the lowest shoots produce grapes, and can therefore hardly be called suckers. But as a rule even they should be removed, unless we have a special object in view, such as renewing the trunk of the vine, lowering its head, or in otherwise encouraging the lower branches. While few vineyardists take sufficient care and time to sucker their vines, there can be no doubt that the operation is of the greatest importance, in order that as large and good a crop as possible may be secured. It is not only best to remove all the non-fruit-bearing branches which spring out from the root and the trunk, but also a little later on, after the shoots have reached a foot or more, to cut any branch from the head of the vine which does not produce fruit. In many instances, however, it is necessary to renew the head of the vine, and for that purpose lower suckers may be allowed to grow. For a year or two these are pruned regularly and made to bear, and the old sickly head is then removed. VARIOUS VINEYARD TOOLS. _General Notes._--It is not my intention to here describe the various tools used in the vineyard so minutely that they can be made after the description, but simply to enumerate and call attention to them in order that as little repetition as necessary may be made. Every local blacksmith or mechanic invents, improves or patents vineyard tools of every description, and almost every year sees new tools introduced and older ones discarded. Still a few of these tools have become standard, and modifications of them are not always improvements.