202 Journal of Agriculture, Yictoria. [lo Mar.,. 1911, 



The first ploughing then consisted in opening up five furrows in each 

 row, this being immediately followed by a cross ploughing, also of five 

 furrows, in a perpendicular direction. This work was followed by 

 hoeing the ground from around the vine into the interval between the 

 rows, the vine being thus situated in a sort of depression or basin. 



The second ploughing, also in two^ perpendicular directions, was given 

 in May. It levelled the ground, filling the basins opened round the vine; 

 if weeds were troublesome it was supplemented by a hoeing. 



The third ploughing (again crossed) was executed in early June in 

 the case of spreading growers or a fortnight later, for erect varieties. 

 After this, the passage of teams is no longer possible and any further 

 work must be done by hand, with the hoe. 



Nowadays, the first or winter ploughing is performed much in the 

 same way as formerly, either with the araire or, occasionally, with a 

 deep working plough of more modern type and supplemented by baring 

 the .stock with the hoe {dechaussemcnt). The second and third ploughings 

 are, however, replaced by scarifyings. varying in number and depth ac- 

 cording to circumstances but usually shallow. 



From the above it is evident that, in its essential features, the system 

 according to which the soil is worked, has altered little since remote 

 antiquity, when all work was done by hand. It is, in a general way, 

 characterized by a deep winter ploughing, executed as early in the winter 

 as circumstances will permit, serving to aerate the soil and enable it to 

 absorb the late winter rains. This is followed by shallower spring 

 working and a st^U shallower summer one. which frees the land from 

 weeds and favours retention of moisture. 



Shallow versus Deep Ploughing. 



It has long been held, in certain quarters, that deep cultivation is 

 injurious to the vine by cutting the surface roots ; the very (mes best 

 situated for the absorption of plant food, since this is more abundant near 

 the surface than in the deeper layers of the soil. Basing themselves on 

 this argument, several authorities, among whom may be noted no less a 

 one than Dr. Guyot, recommended shallow cultivation instead of the 

 thorough working described above. It is true that most of the earlier 

 critics of deep cultivation were residents of cool climates, where the moisture 

 problem is vastly different to what it is in northern Victoria. Professor 

 Foex replied to these in 1886 as follows : — * 



In countries where the summer is dry and where deep cultivation is most 

 necessary, the absorbent roots are not usually superficial, because they do not find 

 in the surface layers of soil, the moisture necessary for their healthy develop- 

 ment, or because, having formed themselves there, under the influence of spring 

 rains, they die off during the drought of summer. It would, therefore, be only in 

 climates where the soil does not dry out in summer, that it would be advantageous 

 to restrict the depth of ploughing. 



The subject has cropped up again recently. Experiments conducted 

 by undoubted authorities in widely different situations in Germany, Northern 

 and Southern France, Spain, and even in Algeria and Tunis, have given 

 results favourable to shallow cultivation. The.se experiments created quite 

 a .sensation some six or seven years ago. Professors Degrully and Ravaz 

 of the Montpellier .school published, in 1905, an exhaustive inquiry into 



* 6. Foex — Cours Complet cle Viticulture, p. 372. 



