CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. LARGE FLEECE. Ill 



tisually arlopted hern. The first consists merely in deep plowing, with a common plow, as 

 for potatoes, and makiuii ihe surface fine and mdlovv with the harrow. The second method 

 goes one stop farthei', ;uul a second fuirow is cut in tiie bottom of the lirst ; in the bottom 

 of the second fuirow a siilisoil plow is nni, wliicii breaks tiio gi-onnd, altu^'othcr, to the 

 depth of .sixteen or eijjhtt'cu inchi'.s ; it is then hanow'd and prcjiarud as in iho lirst. The 

 third method is by thoroughly trenching with the spade, to the deptli of not less than two 

 feet. If the hill-side is steep, (say at an elevatioti of twenty or thirty degrees with tiie 

 horizon,) terraces are also raised from two to four feet in hight, and extending up the hill 

 fi-om twenty to si.xty feet each, according to the acclivity of the surface. By this last mode, 

 the top soil is all thrown into the bottom of the trenches, and the subsoil, which is generally 

 clayey, thrown upon the top, and left sudicientlv smooth for planting. Where stones are 

 found in the soil, tht?y are thrown out on the surface, as the trenching progresses up the hill 

 and if in sulficient quantity, are laid up in walls to sup[)ort the terraces. The terraces are 

 trade to run horizontally along the hill side, or nearly so, with an open ditch for a drain at 

 the upper edge of each terrace, and a similar horizontiil ditch iis often as once in eighty or 

 a hundred feet, wliere the ground is not teiTaced. These dniins should lc;ul to the lowest 

 point in the vineyard, where a suit<ible drain -should be constructed down the hill to carry 

 oft' the surplus water in heavy showers, and may be covered like a culvert, or left o[)en. In 

 each case the vines are planted in rows, four feet apart if to be worked with the hoe and 

 spade, and from five to six feet if to bo worked with tlie plow or cultivator, and should al- 

 ways run horizontally with the terraces and drains. The distance betwiM-n the vines in the 

 row varies from two and a half to torn- feet, according to the mode of training which is to be 

 adopted. 



Cuttings of the vine, with three or four eyes, are sometimes jjlanted, at proper distances, 

 in the vineyard ; but the usual practice is, to plant them first in a nurseiy, m rows, about 

 eighteen inches apart, and from four to six in a row, to strike root ; here they are to be well 

 cultivated, and allowed to gi-ow one or two years, when lliey are taken up in the sprin" 

 and planted out in the vineyard. The fom-tli year from the cuttings, (that is, after they have 

 had three summers' growth — two in the nursei-y and one in the vineyard,) they may be al- 

 lowed to bear a fiiU crop, or nearly as much as they ever should be allowed to bear there- 

 after ; which is about one-fourth of a peck of grapes to each vine. One acre of ground 

 planted six feet by thi-ee apart, will contain aboiit twenty-four hundred vines ; consequently 

 will yield about one hiuidred and fifty bushels of well-assorted gi'apes, which will make 

 three hundred gallons of wine — sometimes a little more. An acre of good ground, well 

 trenched, and planted with Catawba vines, after it Ins acquired six or seven years' Towlh 

 may be made to yield a much greater quantity ; ami some small vineyards below Cincin- 

 nati, on the hills of the Ohio river, have jiroduced at the i-ate of eight hundred <rallons per 

 acre ; but the vines were planted four feet each way, making twenty-six hundred and forty 

 vines to the acre ; but the proprietor admitted that his vines were injured by overbeariuT 

 and that his wine was inferior in quality when allowed to produce that cpiantity. 



I give three hundred gallons as the full average quantity of v^ine made to the acre in the 

 neighborhood of Chiciunati. Of course, much variation will depend upon the manner of 

 establishing a vineyard, and its subsequent ti'eatiuent. 



The comparative merits of the ditferent modes of preparing the gi-ound for a vineyard 

 cannot, as yet, be settied by exjierieuce in tliis part of the countiy, as the oldest vuieyard, I 

 believe, has not been estiiblished more than twelve or thirteen years. Vineyards planted at 

 Vevay, in Indiana, by the Swiss, merely on deeply plowed ground, failed "in fifteen years. 

 When the groiuid is plowed eighteen inches deep, it may bear tolerably well for twenty 

 years ; but a^"ineyiu•d planted on groimd well trenched two feet deep, and properly drained 

 and cultivated, may be expected to hust fifty or one hundred years — peihaps more. The 

 crop, also, is much more ceitain when the ground is well tienched, not Ijelim so liable to 

 suffer from drouths or rainy seasons. 



The advantages of deep ti-encliing have become so apparent to those \\ ho have had the 

 most experience, that nearly all who can afford it are now preparing their gi-ound in tliis 

 maimer, ahhough done at an expense varyuig from eighty to one hundred and twenty-five 

 dollars pt^r acre, according to the character of the ground. This, with the addition of twenty- 

 four hundred vines, at sixty dollars per thousand for one-year old vines, (the customary 

 price in this market.) with the cost of plaining, will make the expense of one acre, exclu- 

 sive of land, stakes. &c. at least tlu-ee hundred dollars, or, without irenching, about two 

 hundred. t.-. mosher. 



LARGE FLEECE. — A specimen of wool from the Lincolnshire breed has been exhibited to 

 nsby Kev. Dr. Lako, inclosed to him in a letter from D. W. Horne, Esq. of Jackson county. 

 It was taken from a \ajnh of only a year's growth, raised by Mr. H., and for length and fineness 

 •arpasses anything we have ever seen. The sample shown us was eleivn and n half inches in 

 length, and from a fleece which weighed (en a/td a half pounds. There is no country better 

 calculated fur sheep tlian Florida, and yet very few of our planters keep enough even to supply 

 tlieir own tables with mutton. We hope to see things changed in ibis respect belc>re long, and 

 wool form an iicm in our exports. [Tallahassee Floridiaji. 



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