210 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



be dried. Such plantations are made with the vines 7x10,. 

 or 8x10, or even 4^x11 feet. There is a great variation 

 in the distances. When planting the vines all dead roots 

 should be cut off and the top cut back to two buds 

 or eyes. The holes for planting should be large enough 

 to allow the roots to be spread out in a natural position 

 and the earth should be packed carefully around all the 

 roots. If the soil is not moist when the vines are plant- 

 ed, they should be irrigated at once, or what is better 

 still the ground should be well soaked by flooding or 

 otherwise before the planting is done. 



Cultivation. Grapevines the first year after 

 planting should be cultivated the same as corn, using first 

 a two-horse corn cultivator straddling the rows and after- 

 wards passing between them, working the land four 

 times during the season, and also using a hoe near the 

 vines. It pays a large percent on the investment to keep 

 the ground mellow and clean. When the ground is kept 

 mellow a harrow is a good tool with which to kill small 

 weeds, using it between the periods of cultivation. Do 

 not attempt to practice economy by planting some other 

 crop among the grapevines. What is planted may do 

 well but the vines must suffer. Grapes the second year 

 after planting need the very best care and cultivation 

 that can be given them, for this is the year the canes grow 

 that bear the first crop of fruit. During the growing sea- 

 son of that year great care should be taken to preserve 

 from two to four canes for bearing fruit the next year, by 

 tying them up to stakes or training them on wires. 



In trellising posts may be set either in winter or 

 spring, and one wire stretched eighteen inches from the 

 ground, on which to fasten shoots during their growth- 

 one extended each way. By fall these arms will be from 

 six to ten feet long and should be cut back to within 

 three or four feet of the ground. The next sprinir thnr 

 more wires should be stretched, twelve inches jipjirt. above- 



