154 AGRICULTURAL REPORT 



from tLe nursery beds to the vineyards, great care should be exercised to pre- 

 vent the exposure of the roots of the vine to frost or dry cold winds. This 

 rule is also applicable to the treatment of cuttings. No plant is more sensitive 

 on expo.-ure to cold dry winds, or frost, than the grape vine, when in process 

 of removal from the nursery to the vineyard. 



Much difference of opinion exists among culturists as to the proper distance 

 apart in which to plant the vines, some contending that they should not be 

 nearer than ten feet, while others would put them as near as three or five. 

 This should be regulated by the character of the soil, and the manner in which 

 it is intended to prune and train the vines. 



"Where the vintner intends to train his plants like dwarf trees, with heads 

 from two to four feet from the ground, the vines must be set not less than six 

 to ten feet apart, or the spurs which are to bear the fruit will, in a few years, 

 so encroach upon the space that it will be difficult to get among the vines for 

 the purpose of working the vineyard and gathering the fruit. 



In a dry climate, like that of California, where it becomes an object to shade 

 the ground, I find that close planting is best, if a system of pnining is adopted 

 in accordance. The best managed vineyard I have ever seen is that of Mar- 

 tin Alhoff, Coloma, El Dorado county, California. There are in this vine- 

 yard some sixty thousand vines, largely comprising Black Burgundy, Catawba, 

 and several Hungarian varieties. The land slopes to the northwest, and is a 

 decomposed granite. The vines are set in rows, six feet apart by three feet, 

 and are pruned to low heads, which are formed but a few inches above the 

 giouud. The pruning which is practiced is that known as the annual renewal 

 system. Few canes are allowed to bear, but these are permitted to have from 

 two to four bunches of grapes to the cane, according to the age and strength 

 of the vine. The bearing canes, as well as those intended for the succeeding 

 year, are tied up to a stake four or five feet high, and the surplus shoots removed 

 from the stock near the ground, as well as the ends of the bearing canes, which 

 has the efiect of fully developing the fruit buds on the next years' canes, as 

 well as giving great vigor to the leaves on the bearing branch nearest the grapes. 



This practice of Mr. Alhoff accords with my own experience, which, long 

 since, convinced me that the best flavored and largest bunches of gi-apcs were 

 always to be found on those vines ^^■hich had their bearing branches nearest to 

 the ground. The best time of the year in which to pnine the vine back for 

 bearing has been a subject of a great difference of opinion among vine growers. 

 My experience teaches that if the object is to obtain a strong growth of wood, 

 the vine trhould be cut back soon after the fall of the leaves, late in autumn. 

 By this course the buds nearest the ends of the spurs will be stimulated by the 

 first flow of sap in the spring, and the new canes grow Avith accelerated vigor 

 by having received the entire force of the early-ascending sap. But if the 

 object is to obtain grapes, late spring pruning is always most favorable, as by 

 permitting the strong and copious first flow of the sap to pass along and be- 

 come distributed among the terminal branches, the buds, which are the reliance 

 for fruit-bearing, remain dormant until all danger of frost or chilling winds shall 

 have passed, when, on cutting the vine back to the proper place, these buds 

 will throw out large, vigorous fruit-spurs, and the entire vine get uniformly 

 into bloom. I have never yet discovered any injury to the vine and the grape 

 crop by what is termed the bleeding of the vine by reason of late spring ampu- 

 tations ; but, on the contrary, believe that not only is the vine exempted from 

 the late spring frosts by such practice, but that it is not as likely to suffer from 

 mildew when this time of pruning is adopted. I have frequently deferred 

 pruning until the ends of the vine had expanded the foliage so that the shoots 

 were starting ; but these same vines ripened their grapes quite as early as any 

 ui the vineyard which Avere pruned at an earlier seasou, and the grapes on the 

 late pruned vines were almost always fairer, and tbe bunches larger than on 

 those which were dressed by the vintner in the fall or winter. 



