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LAYING OUT AND PLANTING THE VINEYARD. 175 
LOCATING, LAYING OUT AND PLANTING 
THE VINEYARD. 
E. G. E. REEL, EXCELSIOR. 
You all, no doubt, have heard the advice given by Mark Twain 
to the young man about to marry, “don’t.” Well,in respect to the 
hope of Klondyke-like returnsin golden (minted) nuggets, my advice 
would be the same: but in the expectation of thrifty vines laden with 
clusters of fragrant grapes, the most delicious, the most healthful 
and the most satisfying of all fruits, [should say by all means, “do.” 
The ideal location in my estimation is a piece of ground sloping 
gently to the southeast by south. A full south slope is next best 
but has not yielded any better results, as far as my observation and 
experience shows. 
Assuming that we have selected the proper slope, the rows should 
be planted so that the shadows fall upon them when the sun is a 
little past the meridian, say about2 P.M. The rows will be each one 
a little above the next and catch the early sunlight more evenly, the 
dew drying faster and the less powerful heat of the morning more 
gradually preparing them for the fierce heat of the summer sun, 
and the noonday sun will fall more nearly parallel to the rows, with 
the double advantage of warming the soil and at the same time 
leaving the rows to shade the young grapes from the heat, as they 
have proven with me to be very susceptible to sunburn at a certain 
stage of development. 
Planting is a matter where “doctors differ,” and as I have tried 
several methods I may presume to say I have had some experience. 
When the ground is not too steep, I would advise planting rows six 
feet apart, seven for the stronger growers like the Rogers No. 15 and 
Concord, and the vines from five feet apart for slow growers like 
Delaware to twelve feet for the stronger ones. Although Ihave not 
tried it regularly, I found that when by some accident a vine was 
missing and I let Delawares grow twelve to sixteen feet long and 
Concords even eighteen feet, I could see no difference in the yield 
per length of row from when the vines were at the regular distance. 
If, therefore, I were planting a new vineyard I would try a part at 
least that way, viz: Delawares sixteen feet and Concords twenty feet 
apart. I would be pleased to have some one’s experience on that 
point. 
In planting I make the invariable rule to plant each vine myself. 
In over 4,500 vines I have never allowed one to be planted by other 
than my own hands and feel repaid for the back-breaking task in 
knowing that the success or non-success of each one lay in my own 
care-taking. My method is as follows: Have the ground plowed 
to the greatest possible depth—which depth in my case I added to 
by turning the furrows down hill, dragging back—and harrowed to 
a satisfactory degree of tilth. I stake the exact position of each 
vine with one-half a lath or other convenient stake, making allow- 
ances for alleys. I like blocks of twenty vines in a rowand eighteen 
rows about as well as any arrangement I have tried; however, if I 
were to plant rows six feet apart I would make every sixth row ten 
