State Amuour/ruRAL Society. 493 



PLANTING AND PEUNINQ THE VINE. 



To the Chairman of Committee on the Cultivation and Pruning of the Grape: 

 I beg Leave bo report, first, on location. I prefer a granite forma 

 fcion, because it is better adapted to the growth of the grape, pro 

 ducing more saccharine matter and is more easily cultivated. Next, I 

 would prefer slate, with a high and dry location and perfect drainage, 

 so that the roots will not enter into the perpetual water, and as level as 

 I could get it, with as few outcropping rocks as possible. Next, gently 

 sloping hillsides. Remove the timber, stumps, and roots; plow the land 

 deep and well, say from fifteen to eighteen inches deep; harrow, roll, 

 :iii(l pulverize well; then lay off the rows eight feet apart both ways, 

 and plan! good rooted vines by all means. Upon this depends all your 

 future prospects; for if you plan), cuttings to remain in vineyard form 

 the results will be unfavorable, and you will always regret it, for several 

 reasons. Plant cuttings, and they will strike roots at the bottom that 

 will go down to the water if possible, and never throw out any surface 

 feeders, which are. necessary to get heat, light, and air, that will produce 

 good fruit. The effect of cuttings is to make wood in abundance, and 

 not fruit; and what fruit they do produce is inferior in bunch and berry 

 and destitute of saccharine matter, which is so essential to make good 

 wine. I think that is the reason why we have so much poor acid wine 

 in California. 



We do not economize when we se1 out cuttings. The percentage in 

 loss, and the trouble, waste of time and labor, make the cost more than 

 to plant good roots at the start. lean tell by the kind and quality of 

 the wood where I have set oul a cutting. If good roots are planted 

 they set two kinds of roots, a few deep feeder to get moisture in a dry 

 time, but the most of them are surface feeders, essential to the develop 

 ment of a perfect 'grape. Tins subject is entitled to more consideration 

 than is generally conceded to it. Upon this proposition depends our 

 future success. If I w< ng to plant cuttings 1 would select a hard 



bed rock that the roots could not penetrate, f noticed in making an 

 excavation eighteen feel deep, to build a wine bouse, in the rotten gran- 

 ite, solid though not hard, that the roots from cuttings planted eight 

 years before had penetrated to that depth hall' an inch in diameter, 

 when rooted vines had not gone to the solid roe];. I make mention of 

 this fact, for it is a lesson in nature that we should no! 



After the land is ready, get a lot of stakes eight lee), long for sight 

 and measuring poles. Set these up at convenient distances to run a 

 trench by. plow passes up the first turn, set the stakes for the 



next row. Turn three furrows in a trench, making it eighteen inches 

 deep. Every tenth row leave ten feet for a wagon road. In this way 

 the horses do the most of the work. Then prepare a long pole of lighl 

 material, say one hundred feel long; mark it correctly every eight feet, 

 to dig holes by. Set up stakes across theend to start from. It is neces 

 sary to start from one end every time, o as to have the rows straight 

 both ways. Lay this pole by the side of the trench. Be sure and 

 that the end of, the measure is straight with the end line; if so, Micro 

 will be no trouble. Set four or five men to digging holes. The holes 

 should be dug in front of the mark on the pole, banking up dirt at the 

 mark on it, so that the setters will have this guido to set by. When 



62 



