AND WINE MAKING. 259 



a one-horse plow towards the vine, on each side of the 

 row, which is followed by one somewhat deeper, still with 

 a one-horse plow, which is followed by a two-horse plow 

 until the centre of the space is finished. This leaves the 

 vines in a bed of mellow earth around them, and the 

 ground is still more mellowed by harrowing across with 

 an iron harrow, wide enough to take the row pretty close 

 to the vines, to break the lumps and destroy the weeds. 

 The Acme harrow is best for this purpose. Commence 

 with these operations as soon as the ground is dry enough 

 to work well, in spring. If the winter is as favorable as 

 the two last have been, most of these operations can be 

 performed during the winter months, which is also a 

 good time to plant rooted vines, make cuttings, etc. 

 There is a prejudice against planting cuttings in the 

 vineyard during winter, as our old practitioners say that 

 the cuttings will rot in the cool, damp soil, and will not 

 start as freely as if planted in March or April, when 

 the ground is warmer. This sounds plausible, and as I 

 have had mostly rooted vines to plant, which kept me 

 busy all winter, I have not been able to test it practi- 

 cally. I know, however, that the young vines planted 

 in winter start readily early in spring, and it would seem 

 that the same theory would apply to cuttings. 



The above is the most common way of plowing in 

 vogue all through this section. Great improvements 

 have been made lately, however, by gang plows, invented 

 for vineyard use. I will describe one of them, invented 

 by a gentleman in Napa Co., this State. It consists 

 of an iron frame on two low wheels, and has a tongue to 

 guide it, as have all gang plows. The iron frame consists 

 of five strong iron bars, running lengthwise, connected by 

 a cross-bar behind. To these bars, which are about a fur- 

 row's breadth apart, two plowshares are attached by iron 

 clamps, taking the two centre furrows first, throwing the 

 ground together in the middle. When a piece is thus 



