98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



quality. If, however, it be necessary to resort to this method, 

 take the lowest shoots of the parent vine, strong and well 

 ripened, cut a notch in the shoot on the under side, between 

 the buds, and bury tlie shoot two or three inches under the 

 surface of the soil. Keep the ground well stirred and free 

 from weeds during the season, and take up the plants in the 

 autumn of tlie same season, and plant them out in nursery 

 rows to make the second year's growth. This is a sure and 

 good method, but we prefer to grow from cuttings, as giving 

 better two-year-old vines — not having been disturbed at the 

 end of the first year, as is necessary with layers, because the 

 roots would get so large that they could not be taken up with- 

 out injury to the roots of the parent vine, and the young vines 

 would be more difficult of cultivation than cuttings in rows. 



Either of these methods will give the vine-grower good and 

 reliable vines for his vineyard ; but if by any accident a plant 

 in his vineyard be destroyed, or so weakened that it will not 

 thrive, take up the weak vine and replace it by the method of 

 provingnage adopted in the French vineyards, which is only 

 the laying of a strong shoot from an adjoining vine, about six 

 inches under the surface, and training up the end of the shoot 

 in the place of the vine destroyed. At the end of the first, or 

 at most of the second year, sever the connection with the 

 parent vine, and take care that no shoots be allowed to grow 

 from the buds of the buried shoot ; the object being to get 

 one vine only in the place of that removed. This method will 

 enable you to keep your vineyard full of vines at all times. 



As to protection of vines in the winter, having already 

 declared our belief, founded on our own experience of many 

 years, that no vine which requires it will be found profitable, 

 we do not recommend it ; but if any are disposed to try it, 

 they will find the best method to be the laying down of the 

 vines in the autumn, and covering with two or three inches of 

 eaith. Another good method is to cover with pine boughs ; 

 but tiic covering of earth is the best. Tender varieties of the 

 vine, however, are only suited to the garden of the amateur, 

 and no vineyard can be long kept up with vines which arc not 

 hardy, and wliicii are therefore cultivated at a much greater 

 expense than is necessary with hardy grapes. 



