S June, 1908.] 



Viticulture in Europe. 



359 



Cultural Methods. 



Nowhere in Spain did I see the soil of the vineyards better worked 

 than at Jerez. The culture in other parts is based on the same principles 

 and the different operations are known by much the same terms, but it 

 is in Jerez that they are most thoroughly and carefully carried out. A 

 brief description of the series of operations by which the soil is worked 

 is thus of interest. 



In the first place, all cultural operations are performed by hand 

 with the hoe. In Jerez, no vineyards are worked by animal traction. The 

 hoes are large and heavy and vary somewhat in form, according to the 

 work and the season. The handle is short and fixed so as to make rather 

 an acute angle with the blade. The knack possessed by the average vine- 

 yard labourer is truly surprising. He is able to turn over a large quantity 

 of ground in a remarkably short time. To see a gang of vignerons at 

 work at the first or principal hoeing is a most interesting sight, and one 

 not easily forgotten. Each man knows exactly how to use his implement 

 to best advantage, not only without interfering with the work of his neigh- 



• DIAGRAM SHOWING APPEARANCE OF VINEYARD WORKED INTO PILETAS. 



bour, but so as to fit in with and complete it. After driving the hoe into 

 the ground instead of drawing it and its load of earth forward in the way 

 we do when hoeing, it is turned sideways the soil being thus as efficiently 

 turned as with a spade though the operation appears queer to a visitor. 

 The short handles and the much back-bending they necessitate also strike 

 one as unusual but, after watching a gang of vignerons carrying out the 

 first winter cultivation for some time on one of the large vineyards, I was 

 much struck by the amount of ground got over and the thorough way in 

 Avhich the work was done, apparently with a minimum of effort. 



Four or five cultural operations are performed during the year. The 

 first or winter cultivation is naturally the most important. It is performed 

 in three distinct ways, according to circumstances, to each of which a 

 different Spanish term is given. 



Chata is the term for the thorough working of the soil which is entirely 

 turned to a depth of some 9 inches, and at the same time gathered into 

 ridges between the vines so that after its completion each vine is sur- 

 rounded by an embankment about i foot in height and occupies the centre 



