STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 141 



ifiecl. My experience is confined to ray immediate neighborhood ; 

 and, even in tliis limited space, there have been trials only to a 

 limited extent, for a soil that may suit one grape may be entirely 

 unfit for another. There are, however, some general facts that are 

 safe to accept. A finely divided sandy soil will absorb water readily 

 and is easily worked. It will, too, retain water in summer much 

 better than adobe or clay, or a coarse, porous soil. Adobe and clay 

 soils are good for the raising of such crops as grow in the winter, like 

 grasses, wheat, barley, and oats; sandy soils, on the other hand, are 

 adapted for summer growing products, like corn, melons, pumpkins, 

 fruit trees, grapevines, and not suited to grasses. The hrst, in summ er, 

 with heat, shrinks and cracks. It is in a favorable condition to evap- 

 orate its Avater easily; for a solid, hard earth will sooner lose its water 

 than a soft, mellow surface, as can be seen by our roads, which always 

 dry up sooner than the land on either side. The condition of its 

 capillary attraction, by the spaces between the particles of its soil 

 being close together, are favorable for drawing the water in warm 

 weather out of its soil; whereas, a sandy soil, by its porosity, has less 

 capillary power to draw the water to the surface and more capacity to 

 take up air in daytime, which, by tlie cold at night, is condensed 

 into water, when more air is again taken up, to go through the same 

 changes. 



Man can do much to assist in retaining water in a soil by cultiva- 

 tion — stirring the soil. Even a very light soil will, by rains, dew, 

 gravitation, and other forces of nature, continually form a crust on 

 top, harden, presenting favorable conditions for shedding rain, and 

 also for evaporation. By plowing, this is counteracted, and the 

 oftener this is done, the more moisture will be retained and added, by 

 giving free ingress to the air and cutting off evaporation ; for a loose 

 soil, if only a few inches on top, acts as a mulch. It cuts off com- 

 munication with the lower strata of soil ; it acts like a lamp that has 

 its wick severed above the oil; it stops capillary connection with 

 that below. Such a soil can be easily kept in such condition by cul- 

 tivating, say once a month, with a minimum of labor; but an adobe 

 or clay soil is very difficult to work. It breaks up in clods, giving 

 more surface for wand and sun to act upon and dry, and, if broken 

 up by beating the clods, makes an almost endless task, for the hrst 

 rain to pack together again. Cultivation should be continued during 

 the entire summer. The ground may be entirely without moisture 

 'on the surface; it may be dry to such a depth that weeds do not 

 sprout any more, and every object apparently wanting for stirring 

 the ground, yet you will hnd that your grapevines will show by their 

 renewed vigor and growth after cultivation that it has not been labor 

 lost. Of course, this continued cultivation is only possible in vine- 

 yards the hrst and second years of their growth. When older, they 

 early in the season cover the ground so that no horse can get through 

 them, and by shading the ground, they prevent much of the evapora- 

 tion and stop weed growth; but, even with old vines, cultivation 

 should be kept up as long as possible. 



Cultivation should, too, be thorough, and continued as long as any 

 weeds make their appearance, for all growth is at the expense of 

 water. Grass or weeds, while making an earlier growth, take up the 

 water in your soil by their roots, and evaporate it by their leaves 

 more rapidly than your vines, for they run through to their maturity 

 earlier, and many of them evaporate and use more water. At any 



