AND WINE MAKING. 97 



Should the vines show a decrease in vigor, so as to in- 

 dicate the need of stimulants, they may be manured with 

 ashes, bone dust, compost, or still better, with surface 

 soil from the woods or prairies. This will serve to re- 

 plenish the soil which may have been washed off, and is 

 much more beneficial -than stable manure. When the 

 latter is employed, a small trench may be dug in the 

 middle of the row just above the vine, the manure laid 

 in, and covered with soil. But an abundance of fresh 

 soil, drawn around the vine, is the best of all manures. 



Should your vineyard have vacancies, they had best be 

 filled with layers from neighboring vines, made as follows: 

 Dig a trench from the vine from which the layer is to be 

 made, to the empty place, about 8 or 10 inches deep ; 

 bend into this trench one of the canes of the vine which 

 has been left to grow unchecked for the purpose, and 

 pruned to the proper length. Let the end of this layer- 

 cane come out at the surface, where the new vine is want- 

 ed, and fill up the trench with well pulverized earth. It 

 will take root at every joint, and grow rapidly, but as it 

 draws a great deal of nourishment from the parent vine, 

 that must be pruned much shorter. When the layer is 

 well established, it is cut from the parent vine, either the 

 second or third season. Such layers will fill up much 

 better than if the vacancies are supplied by planting, 

 young vines, as the latter do not grow very vigorous- 

 ly, if set among the others, after the second season. 



Pruning is best done in fall, but can be done any time 

 during mild weather in winter, and here even as late as 

 the middle of March. Fall pruning will prevent flow of 

 sap, and the cuttings, if to be used for future plantations, 

 or sold, are also better if made in the fall, and buried in 

 the ground overwinter, with their upper ends downwards. 

 All the sound, well-ripened wood of last season's growth 

 may be made into cuttings, and if they can be sold, 

 will largely add to the product of the y-ineyard. 



