92 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



to establish itself, is much more likely to go tliroiigh the ensuing 

 winter without harm. It is always good husbandry to put an 

 inch or two of leaf mould or chip dirt about the plants the first 

 winter after planting, to prevent heaving by frost ; after the 

 first winter they are safe. 



AT WHAT DISTANCE APART SHOULD THE VINES BE PLANTED ? 



The vines raised from the Vitis Labrusca require much more 

 room than is usually allowed in vineyard culture. The direc- 

 tions copied from foreign books on the grape, although well 

 adapted to the foreign grape, will certainly mislead the culti- 

 vator who applies them to our native varieties, some of which 

 make shoots twelve or fifteen feet long in a single year. 



Buchanan, in his treatise on grape culture says : "For steep 

 hill-sides three and a half feet by four and a half, or three feet 

 by five, may answer, but for gentle slopes, three and a half 

 by six is close enough, and for level land four feet by seven." 

 We think eight feet by eight close enough for vineyard culture 

 — which will permit the use of the plough and cart. If the 

 vineyard is of limited extent, and an early return for the 

 capital is desired, plant eight feet by four, and after a few 

 seasons cut out every alternate vine, leaving them at last eight 

 by eight. 



The reason for giving the vines this wider space to grow in, 

 will be obvious when one recollects how large a space a single 

 vine will cover under favorable circumstances, and that there 

 should be a ])roper balance between the roots and branches, 

 both of which should be as near as possible to what nature 

 designed ; that is to say, should have a good extension, that the 

 vine may be healtliy and long-lived. An additional reason for 

 these larger distances will be found in the facility which they 

 afford for the passage of the team in carting off the crop, and in 

 ploughing and cultivating the soil ; the sun also finds access to 

 the soil, more than in close planting, giving that warmth to the 

 root so essential to the ripening of the crop. 



p R u N I N (} . 

 There are various modes of pruning the grajw, all of which 

 have value and adaptation to particular circumstances, as cov- 

 ering a certain space, an ornamental es})alior, or the production 

 of large bunches of fruit. And this last is an olyect of some 



