STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 167 



one-horse plough — the subsequent cultivation to be made with the bull- 

 tongue and horse hoe, without disturbing that layer. 



Barnyard manures should be well decomposed, and applied early in 

 the season. Bones and all other phosphates of lime are the best fertil- 

 izers. The application of fresh slaked lime will benefit any soil, especiall}'' 

 one which is heavy, tenacious. The lime should be ploughed under in 

 its caustic state as hydrate of lime, to produce immediate beneficial 

 effects. A composition of about ten parts of hydrate of lime and one 

 part of common salt, well mixed together, and a handful of it sprinkled 

 after the winter pruning on each vine, besides its fertilizing properties, 

 would be especially beneficial in dislodging insects which hide under the 

 loose bark. 



Irrigation, with a few exceptional cases, is most injurious in vineyard 

 culture. 



The onl} T disease to which our vines are subject is mildew. Of the 

 many preventives which have been tested here, sulphur is by far the 

 most efficacious. Its particles coming in contact with the spores of 

 oidium destroy their vitality, and as brimstone is also antagonistic to 

 insect life, it is in a great measure a preventive of their depredations. 

 To be successful, the buds at the time of frondescence should receive a 

 good sprinkling, again when the blossom racemes are fully developed, 

 and a third time when the grapes are of the size of small peas. Some 

 contend that the dusting with finely pulverized clay has the same effect, 

 but this does not conform with our experience. Others advise the use 

 of salts of copper, to which we emphatically dissent. All compounds of 

 copper are virulent poisons, and even in small quantities, though acting 

 slowly, surely destroy animal life. 



The author closes with the hope that however imperfect, from the 

 nature of the subject, this essay may be, it will prove the means of aid- 

 ing some of his fellow wine growers in their enterprise in extending the 

 culture of the vine in California. 



" 'Tis the vine ! 'tis the vine !" laughing myriads resound, 

 " Hail, hail to the wino tree, all hail 1" 



