THE VINEYARD AND ITS MANAGEMENT 95 



Grape roots are well down in the soil and there is little danger 

 of injuring them in deep tillage. The depth of plowing and 

 cultivating should be varied somewhat from season to season 

 to avoid the formation of a plow-sole. In some regions plow- 

 ing and cultivating may be made a means of combating insects 

 and fungi, and this regulates the depth of tillage. Thus, in 

 the Chautauqua grape-belt of western New York, the pupa of 

 the root-worm, a scourge of the grape in this region, is thrown 

 out and destroyed by the grape-hoe just as it is about ready 

 to emerge as an adult to lay its eggs on the vines. In all regions, 

 leaves and mummied grapes bearing countless mjTiads of spores 

 of the mildews, black-rot and other fungi are interned by the 

 plow and cannot scatter disease. 



The time in the season to stop tillage depends on the locality, 

 the season and the variety. It is a good rule to cease cultiva- 

 tion a few weeks before the grapes attain full size and begin 

 to color, for by this time they will have weighted down the 

 vines so that fruit and foliage will be in the way of the cultivator. 

 In the North, cultivation ceases in the ordinary season about 

 the first of August, earlier the farther south. Rank-growing 

 sorts, as Concord or Clinton, do not need to be cultivated as 

 late as those of smaller growth and scantier foliage, as Delaware 

 or Diamond. The cover-crop seed is covered the last time over 

 with the cultivator. Plate IV shows a well-tilled vineyard of 

 Concords. 



Irrigation 



The grape, as a rule, withstands drought very well, several 

 species growing wild on the desert's edge. Even in the semi- 

 arid regions of the far West, where otlier fruits must always 

 be irrigated, the grape often grows well without artificial water- 

 ing. Irrigation is practiced in vineyards in the United States 

 only on the Pacific slope and here the practice is not as general 

 as with other fruit crops. Whether the grape shall be grown 



