32 



The Grape Culturist. 



trees, were over six inches in diameter, 

 and yet showed no signs of decay, but 

 looked as if the}' could live and flour- 

 ish for centuries to come. We could 

 see no reason why it should be consid- 

 ered injurious to nearly every other 

 fruit tree, to plant it deep, and the con- 

 trary should be the case with the vine : 

 even to such an extent that the so- 

 called "dew roots," or surface roots, 

 should be closely cut away each spring. 

 We experimented first with the latter 

 practice, by abandoning it on some 

 rows in the vineyard, and found no dif- 

 ference in the health of the fruity while 

 we remarked a wonderful increase of 

 vigor and health in favor of the vines 

 not root-pruned. We then set to work 

 in earnest to extend our theory also to 

 the preparation of the soil, and the 

 planting of the vines ; and, to begin at 

 the beginning, we made the cuttings 

 from which we grew our plants nine to 

 twelve inches long, instead of fifteen 

 to eighteen, as the old practice taught. 

 The result was magical. We found 

 that the lower bud of our short cut- 

 tings threw out numerous strong and 

 substantial roots, instead of the thin 

 slim roots distributed over every joint 

 on the long cuttings ; and the short 

 cuttings made double the growth of 

 wood of the long ones. 



Next came the preparation of the 

 soil. We had a piece of wild forest 

 land to prepare, in the spring of 1861. 

 We had this carefully grubbed, all the 

 trees and stumps taken out, and then 

 bought a strong breaking plow, adapted 

 to the purpose, with a strong straight 

 colter to cut the roots. To this we 

 put three pair of strong oxen, and 

 plowed with it as deep as we could — 

 say a foot — keeping a couple of men 



with axe and grubbing hoe ready to 

 cut such roots as the team was not able 

 to break. This was 'Allowed with a 

 Moline subsoil stirrer, vhich is nothing 

 but a flat, thick, somewhat triangular 

 share, running at the bottom of the 

 furrow, a strong colter in front to cut 

 the roots, and an adjustable wheel to 

 regulate depth ; to which two pair of 

 oxen were attached, and which only 

 loosened the soil, without turning it or 

 bringing it to the surface. Thus we 

 could loosen the soil at an average 

 about eighteen inches, and the whole la- 

 bor, harrowing and gathering the roots 

 included, cost us about 825 per acre, 

 instead of 880 to 8120, which we would 

 have had to pay for trenching with the 

 spade. 



Our old vintners, of European expe- 

 rience, shook their heads at the " foolish 

 innovator," as they were pleased to call 

 us, and prophecied a speedy decrease 

 of vigor of the vines, and their failure 

 in a few years. It was unheard of to 

 them : their fathers, and their grand- 

 fathers before them, had always 

 trenched, planted deep, and cut dew 

 roots ; and when, instead of fifteen 

 inches, we planted our vines but nine 

 to ten inches, it could not succeed, but 

 must fail very soon. But we are happy 

 to saj^, their prophecies are not fulfilled. 

 The vineyard thus planted, now nine 

 years old, has not only produced more 

 and heavier crops than almost every 

 other one in the neighborhood, but 

 shows no decrease of vigor ; and some- 

 thing like four thousand gallons of wine 

 were made from the original three acres 

 thus prepared last fall . Nay, it has led 

 most of the vintners of the neighbor- 

 hood to follow the pernicious example 

 thus given, and now the spade is sel- 



