I40 An American Fruit-Farm 



to bear fruit, often at the expense of the vine and 

 to the serious injury of the vineyard. We hear, 

 therefore, nowadays of *'the growth of wood'* 

 as little or great, and men are learning **no vine, 

 no wine/* 



First, last, and all the time the fruit-grower 

 needs a strong, healthy vine. Stable manure 

 in quantity is needed, or its equivalent. This 

 means, with the disappearance of cattle and hogs 

 and stock from our fruit valleys, that resort must 

 henceforth be had to cover-crops plowed in, — 

 the clovers, vetches, beans, and turnips. If you 

 can begin the cultivation of your vineyard by 

 plowing in a heavy cover of barnyard manure, or 

 a heavy growth of some cover-crop, you are taking 

 no uncertain step towards profit. Which clover 

 you shall use, — crimson, mammoth, or Alsach, or 

 whatsoever this crop may be, you sowed it the 

 season before, directly you had completed your 

 year's cultivation of the vineyard. This means 

 not later than the opening days of August, or even 

 two weeks earlier, — as the season may permit. It 

 is a stiff job plowing a vigorous growth of clover, 

 in bloom, and the more complete the growth the 

 more valuable as fertilizer. The requisite is 

 perfect turning of the sod so as to make a clean 

 job. Then follow in succession, the season 

 through, disc-plowing, horse-hoeing, hand-hoeing, 

 cultivating with the two-horse cultivator, — the 

 number of times all this is done depending upon 

 the capacity of the fruit-grower to raise grapes. 



