494 [ THE VINE. 



April or May, it will be necessary to break up lightly 

 and reduce to powder the surface crust or cake which is 

 formed, but no deep work is necessary. 



It is advisable to manure the vineyard every third 

 or fourth year, The operation is best associated with 

 trenching to a depth of 15 to 20 c.m. early in winter as 

 soon as the pruning is completed, and the manure is 

 distributed evenly at the bottom of the trench and there 

 it is digged in by a pickaxe, in the ordinary way. Well- 

 rotted manure from the farmyard or the cowshed is the 

 best for this purpose, and is applied at the usual rate of 

 400 to 500 hectolitres to the hectare, which works out 

 roughly at -| to i basketful per vine according to the 

 development of the plants and the distances at which 

 they are planted. On rocky ground where the land cannot 

 be trenched, the manure is applied as a surface dressing 

 and in smaller quantity, but then the vineyard should 

 have this surface dressing in alternate years. Surface 

 dressings of manure are practically useless in the case of 

 vines growing on good soils, but a dressing of wood-ashes 

 given early in winter just before a hoeing, or a long with 

 the manure during trenching, improves the vigour of the 

 vines and the quality of their produce. Another method 

 of manuring the vineyard which is often adopted by the 

 growers owing to the difficulty of trenching land thickly 

 covered by the vines, consists in digging square holes, 

 between the rows and alternately with the vines, half a 

 metre wide and 40 to 50 c m. deep, and burying half 

 a basketful to one basketful of manure in each hole. 



Whatever method is adopted for manuring the vine- 

 yard, it should be remembered that the excessive use of 

 organic manure will produce grapes of inferior quality for 

 the wine-press, and therefore vines the yield of which is 

 destined for fermentation should be manured sparingly, 

 making up for any deficiency of potash and phosphates 

 by the use of wood ashes and chemical manures such as 



