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32 ANNUAL REPORT. 
the soil can be stirred and mixed to a depth of 15 or 18 mehes, and put in fine 
condition. Some of our German growers prepare the soil by trenching with a 
spade. They commence upon one side and throw the earth about three feet 
wide and two or more spades deep, which leaves an open ditch. Another strip. 
of the same width is taken, and the surface soil is placed in the bottom of the 
ditch, and the lower soil upon the top, and this is continued until the whole 
plat is dug over, when the earth taken out of the first ditch is carted over to: 
fill the last. This method of preparing the soil is laborious and expensive, and I 
think it does not pay in this country of cheap land and dear labor. 
No fertilizers of any kind are required upon our virgin soil, and upon most 
soils application would do harm, at least for a few years. 
It should be understood that where the ground has been prepared with mat- 
hook or spade, it ought to lie several months before the vines are planted, 
while where a plow is used, the last plowimg may immediately precede the 
planting. The next operation is laying off the ground and planting the vines. 
The best practice is to lay off the whole vineyard at once. This is done by 
stretching a line upon one side where the first row is desired, and then measur- 
ing along the line. Set a small stake where each plant is desired to stand, then 
moving the line a sufficient distance for the next row, set the stakes, and so con- 
tinue until the plat is finished. 
The best distance for planting our rampant growing American varieties is 
rows eight feet apart, plant in the six to eight. Where the land is level 
the rows may run east and west or north and south, or both, but upon side hills. 
they should run nearly horizontal with the shape of the hill. 
The most convenient tool to use in planting is a good, bright spade. A la- 
borer passes along the row and digs a hole beside each stake, and always upon 
the same side of each about one foot deep and large enough to receive the roots 
of the plant without cramping.. This is where rooted plants are to be used, but 
if the vineyard is to be set with cuttings, two smaller holes are dug, one each. 
side of the stake, and all crude earth is to be thrown to one side. Separate to 
be rejected and better soil substituted for filling in about the plants. The 
planter should follow immediately after, before the soil becomes dried out, set- 
ting one vine in each hole im such a position as shall bring the top near the 
stake, being careful not to jam the two or more sets of roots down together, but 
spreading them out in their natural positions, filling around and over them 
good, fine soil, gently pressed down, setting the plant so low that when the 
hole 1s filled only the crown or wood shall be exposed, and if that is an inch or 
two below the surface level all the better. After a row is set the laborer should 
go back along the row, pressing the earth firmly about the plants with his feet, 
and afterward draw an inch or so of mellow soil‘over the whole to actas a mulch ~ 
and prevent the surface trom baking. 
If cuttings are used the planter inserts one each side of the stake im such a 
manner as that the tops shall approach the stake and the base slant away from 
it, so that if both live. one may be taken up without disturbing the roots of the 
other. About the same care is required in filling the holes, as where the plants 
are used ; and they should be set so deep that the top eye will be from one to 
two inches below the level and slanted so that the bottom will not be covered 
more than eight or ten inches, and the top eye should he just covered with mel- 
low soil. In this climate planting is best done in the spring, not too early, but 
any time after the ground is dry and the weather warm enough so that growth 
