VINEYARD POSTS 



417 



eighteen or twenty feet apart, and a vine will then 

 stand four or five feet from each post. If the 

 posts in the row are eighteen feet apart and the 

 rows eight feet apart, about three hundred and 

 thirty posts will be required to the acre. Except 

 in very hard and stony lands, the posts are driven 



264. A poor way of bracing the post. 



with a heavy maul, although many people prefer 

 to set the end posts in holes, thinking that they 

 endure the strain better. In all loose soils, how- 

 ever, posts can be made as firm by driving as by 

 setting with a spade. All posts should be as firm 

 as possible, in order to hold up the heavy loads of 

 vines and fruit. In setting posts on hillsides, it 

 is a common practice to lean them slightly uphill, 

 for there is always a tendency for the posts to tilt 

 down the slope. For the Kniffin systems, es- 

 pecially for the strong -growing grapes, the posts 

 must stand six or six and one -half feet high when 



