334: CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



then, evidently are phosphoric acid and potash. As in the case of the orchard 

 of peaches, the vineyard will be greatly better off if the cultivation ceases at 

 midsummer, and the spaces between the rows are sown with a leguminous 

 crop that will remain during the winter. With such a growth there will soon 

 be no need for any applications of nitrogen in the fertilizer, which can then be 

 reduced to the two constituents, acid phosphate and potash. 



The Southern species of the Vulpina (Rotundifolia) genus, the "Scup- 

 pernong," are commonly grown from Southeastern Virginia southward along 

 the coast on horizontal arbors, and there is a belief that they should never 

 be pruned; and there are, in the South, immense vines that cover acres with 

 the growth from a single trunk, and bear profusely. But proper pruning is 

 just as good for the Scuppernong and other grapes of this class as for others, 

 with the difference that these grapes produce fruit from two-year-old wood, 

 while the Labrusca varieties grown in the North bear on one-year wood. A 

 proper amount of strong canes must be preserved in the Scuppernong class 

 and the old gnarled wood cut out. This must be done in the fall, to avoid 

 the heavy bleeding these vines are apt to make when cut in the spring. These 

 grapes prefer a sandy soil and a warm climate, and will not ripen north of 

 Southern Virginia. In a soil suited to them they are not at all exacting in 

 their requirements as to food, and all over the South Atlantic slope can be seen 

 immense vines which have never been manured or pruned. But they will, 

 nevertheless, well repay the application advised for other grapes. Grown on 

 the wide extended arbors it is not practicable to grow the leguminous cover 

 crops, and some nitrogen should always be a part of the fertilizer, and no mix- 

 ture is better than the above. 



PROPAGATION OF THE GRAPE. 



Most of the varieties of our native grapes are easily increased from cut- 

 tings of the one-year-old wood, made in the fall and buried out of reach of 

 frost (in the colder latitudes) till spring, and then set in nursery rows. In the 

 South they can be set at once where they are to grow, and slightly protected 

 by a thin cover of pine leaves or straw to prevent the soil from freezing. The 

 cuttings should be made with about three eyes unless the wood is of a very 

 short jointed variety, when four or more eyes may be used. They should be 

 set with the top bud just above the ground, and the cuttings should be cut 

 right under the bud at the lower end and an inch above the bud at the top. 

 They will be fit to set in the vineyard at the end of one summer's growth. 

 Some varieties, like the Delaware and Norton's Virginia, which are slow to 

 root in the ordinary way, will root well if tied in bunches and buried in the 



