94 MANUAL OF AMERICAN GRAPE-GROWING 



poor showing in his vineyard. The amount of moisture in 

 the soil is a better guide. The chief function of tillage is to 

 save moisture by checking evaporation and to put the soil 

 in such condition that its water-holding capacity is increased. 

 The physical condition of the land is another guide. Tilling 

 when the soil needs jnilverizing furnishes a greater feeding 

 surface for the roots. 



Tillage begins with plowing in early spring. Whether pro- 

 vided with a cover-crop to be turned under or hard and bare, 

 tlie land must be broken each spring with the plow. Plowing 

 is best done by running a single furrow with a one-horse plow 

 up to or away from the vines as occasion calls and then follow- 

 ing with a two-horse or a gang-plow. Some growers use a disc 

 harrow instead of the plow to break the land in the spring, 

 but this is a doubtful procedure in most \ineyards and is im- 

 possible when a heavy green-crop covers the land. Tillage 

 with harrow, cultivator, weeder or roller then proceeds at such 

 intervals as conditions demand, seldom less than once a fort- 

 night, until time to sow the cover-crop in midsummer. About 

 the time grapes blossom, the grape-hoe should be used to level 

 down the furrow turned u}) to the vines in the spring plowing. 

 Tillage should always follow a heavy rain to prevent the forma- 

 tion of a soil crust, this l)eing a time when he who tills quickly 

 tills twice. The munbcr of times a vineyard should be tilled 

 depends on the soil and the season. Ten times over with the 

 cultivator in one vineyard or season may not be as effective as 

 five times in another vineyard or another season. ' In some 

 regions, as in Xew York, the grower is so often at the mercy 

 of wet weather in early spring that the plowing is best done in 

 the fall, and spring operations must then open with harrowing 

 with some tool that will break the land thoroughly. 



The depth to till is governed by the nature of the soil and 

 the season. Heavy soils need deej:) tilling; light soils, shallow 

 tilling; in wet weather, till deeply; in dry weather, lightly. 



