RESISTANT VINEYARDS GRAFTING, PLANTING, CULTIVATION. 129 



II. THE VINEYARD. 



Preparation of the Land. Whatever the method of grafting adopted, 

 the land where the vineyard is to be planted should receive the same 

 careful preparation. Profitable vineyards have been established in 

 some soils which have received no more preparation than is needed 

 for a crop of wheat. Such cases are, however, exceptional, and even 

 in these cases better and quicker results would have been obtained 

 if the ground had been properly prepared before planting. The need 

 of thorough preparation of the soil is more urgent when we plant 

 resistant vines than when we plant vinifera varieties on their own 

 roots. This is owing both to the greater sensitiveness of resistant 

 roots to unfavorable conditions and to the greater cost of starting a 

 resistant vineyard, which makes the necessity of quick returns more 

 pressing. 



In South Africa it is usual to obtain a crop eighteen months after 

 planting bench grafts. This crop may amount to five tons per acre, 

 and even more. This precocity is due in great part to the fact that 

 before planting, the soil of the vineyard is hand-trenched to a depth 

 of 30 inches or more. Hand-trenching is, of course, out of the question 

 in California, where labor is expensive. We can, however, approxi- 

 mate these results by deep plowing and subsoiling. Wherever resist- 

 ant vines are planted, 'the soil should be plowed 2 or 3 inches deeper 

 than the depth to which the bottom of the cutting or graft will reach 

 when planted, and subsoiled several inches below this. A plow which 

 will turn the soil over to a depth of 12 inches, followed by a subsoiler 

 stirring the soil 6 inches deeper, will give results during the first 

 three years of the life of the vineyard that will more than repay the 

 cost in crop alone, and the perfect stand and strong healthy vines 

 will insure good crops in later years. It is doubtful whether a vine 

 which is starved and dwarfed during the first three or four years 

 of its life ever gives the best results in crop. 



If the land is plowed in the way described the roots of the graft 

 when planted will be in contact with top soil, which is the best for 

 root growth, and the graft should make a growth of several canes 

 3 or 4 feet long and a strong root system the first year. 



Fertilization. As a rule, no general fertilization of the soil is needed 

 the first year, the deep plowing being sufficient to insure a strong 

 growth. When replanting the site of an old vineyard or planting 

 vines on land which has been occupied by an orchard, some fertilizer 

 to renew the humus of the soil is advisable. A crop of rye or peas 

 plowed-in the year previous to planting is useful for this purpose. 

 A heavy manuring with from 15 to 20 tons of well-rotted stable 



