THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 107 



cent die. The reason is often careless planting, when the season is 

 favorable, but in unfavorable seasons the failure must be attributed to 

 other causes. Those cuttings which grow, generally grow well and 

 often make as good vines as those raised from previously rooted ones. 



The replanting of the cuttings that failed to live is both expensive 

 and troublesome. Kvery vineyardist knows how difficult it is to suc- 

 ceed in making cuttings, or even vines, grow on places in the vine- 

 yard where other ones have failed to grow before. Some attribute this 

 difficulty to some poison in the soil, but I believe the cause will be 

 found in the greater difficulty to attend to a few young vines in among 

 the older ones. The older vines will naturally use up the moisture in 

 the soil, and the cuttings, with their young and tender roots, will have 

 but little chance in the general struggle for life. But even if we sup- 

 pose that the replanted vines will do equally well, it will be found that 

 the replanting of the cuttings is actually more expensive than the first 

 planting. The reason why this is so lies in the greater work in get- 

 ting the soil in first-class condition after the first planting failed. In 

 the first planting, the soil has been put in order with the help of 

 horses and plows, while, when we replant, the very spots where the 

 vines are to be located cannot be reached by other means than by a 

 pick or shovel, as, no matter how well the old vineyard is plowed, 

 there will always be a hard spot around every vine, or around the 

 place where the vine should be, and where it failed to grow. If only 

 a few cuttings have taken root, it is better to plow up the whole 

 vineyard and reset, and in so doing endeavor to do better work. I 

 know of vineyards where the owners have not succeeded in replanting 

 during ten years, every year spending money and labor with little suc- 

 cess. There will always be a few cuttings that fail to live. 



The causes of the uncertainty of cuttings are our inability to foresee 

 the outcome of the season's climatic conditions. More or less rain 

 has a direct influence on our success. Thus in very rainy seasons the 

 cuttings should be small or rather short, so as to be as much as possi- 

 ble in the upper, dryer and warmer soil. In dry seasons, again, the 

 cuttings should be long, so as io be in the moist ground, but as we 

 can never foresee what the season will be, we had better have a 

 recourse to rooted vines, which, if in good condition, will be compara- 

 tively independent of weather and wind. 



The Making of Cuttings. The making of cuttings is not a difficult 

 process, but nevertheless it should be carefully done in order to insure 

 final success. After the vines have been trimmed and the trimmings 

 have been placed in small piles along the rows of the vineyard, the 

 cuttings should be made as quickly as possible on the spot, the laborers 

 moving from pile to pile as they finish up. The shears should be sharp 

 and kept sharp, both to insure good cuttings and to hasten the work. 

 A poor shear is worse than a poor farmhand, and it pays to keep the 

 best kind of every tool that is used in vineyard work. The size of the 

 cutting must be decided upon according to the conditions of the soil. 

 If the land is very wet and is likely to remain so, an eight-inch, or even 

 a six-inch, cutting, will do, and will grow better than a long one. 

 Long cuttings will reach down into the wet soil and decay at the lower 



