THE GENESEE FAEMER. 



59- 



very man who has a rod of ground should plant 

 I grape vine, and plant as many as he has room 

 |ir, or can afford to plant. No other fruit-bearing 

 i.ant will so well repay any one for care or neglect. 

 s abundance of luscious fruit is as easily kept 

 esh through the winter as any other fruit, and it 

 .akes excellent preserves, and is easily manufac- 

 ired into wholesome wine. 



PREPAEATION OF THE GEOHND. 



There are but very few vineyards properly pre- 

 ired in America. Labor is so very high in this 

 )untry, as to make it seem almost out of the 

 lestion to properly prepare a vineyard. There 

 •e very few gentlemen in this country wishing to 



ant out a vineyard, who have the courage to lay 

 at for labor seventy-five or one hundred dollars 

 er acre, for trenching and turning up 4;he soil 

 one- And yet it is absolutely necessary to the 

 irift and longevity of the vines, that the ground 

 e trenched and broken up three or four feet in 

 epth. In Europe, many of the best vineyards are 

 enched to the depth of three, four, and even five 

 et. Tlie ground is trenched the fall previous to 

 ;anting, and not unfrequently has been prepai'ed 

 f seeding down with clover two or three years 

 receding the time of trenching, and has had one 

 ' two good coatings of gypsum and manure. 



Should the ground be at all wet or springy, it 

 ill be absolutely necessary to thoroughly under- 

 rain it before planting. This is, perhaps, best done 

 efore the trenching or plowing. The main drains 



ould be laid thirty, forty or fifty yards apart, ac- 

 jrding to the sta,te of the land, whether it be very 

 '•et, or only a little springy. The main drains 

 hould be laid up and down the hill, coming out 

 ito an open ditch at the bottom of tlie hill. The 

 ross drains should run diagonally down the hill 

 ito the main drains, and be laid about nine yards 

 part, and sunk to the depth of three and a half to 

 ■)ur feet. This running down the hill gives an im- 

 petus to the water that will clear out any sediment 

 hat may collect in the pipes. 



Few persons are full}^ aware of the importance 

 f thorough drainage as a means of meliorating 

 he soil, and none but those who have witnessed 

 ts results can fully appreciate its great benefits. 

 3y draining, the soil is kept froni being too wet, 

 md also preserved from the ill efltects of severe 

 routh — it is warmed by the summer showers, 

 ivhich, instead of running oif over the surface and 

 ;vashing away the soil, soaks to the bottom of the 

 .oose earth, and the superabundant water is car- 

 led ofi" through the drains, leaving its rich gases, 

 which have been collected in falling through the 

 iir, in the soil for the young absorbents of the 

 plants. In excessive dry weather, moisture is 

 drawn from the depths of the soil by capillary at- 

 ti*action, thereby keeping it moist to the very sur- 

 face, and preserving the plants in health and vigor 

 in the most protracted drouths. "Where ground is 

 thoroughly drained, plants are not so likely to be 

 affected by winter heavmg ; the soil becomes dry 

 and warm much earlier in the spring, and the plants 

 commence a vigorous root action one or two weeks 

 before the buds begin to burst; they are thereby 

 better enabled to force and sustain a more vigorous 

 growth of foliage when it does start; the wood 

 becomes more thoroughly ripened in the fall, and 

 18 better fitted to stand severe winter freezing. 



The ground intended for a vineyard should re- 

 ceive a good manuring the year previous to plant- 

 ing, to be turned in and thoroughly mixed with tho 

 soil in the trenching — either a good coating of 

 lime, where that kind of manure is wanting (which 

 will not be if there be much lime rock in the soil), 

 or a good application of gypsum, where it can be 

 had, or a good coating of barn-yard manure, de- 

 composed vegetable mold from the woods, turfy 

 sods, the cleanings-out of ditches, street scrapings 

 and sweepings, or a good clover sod plowed in pre- 

 vious to trenching. 



When the ground is thus prepared, it wiU be 

 ready to commence the trenching. Stretch a line 

 across the ground, and mark out a trench four feet 

 wide and the whole length of the piece to be 

 trenched. Then dig out the soil the whole width 

 of the trench, and two to three or four feet deep, 

 according to the depth it is intended to be trenched, 

 and with the teams draw the soil to the opposite 

 side of the vineyard, where the trenching will be 

 completed. This soil is to fill in the last trench at 

 finishing, to complete the work. When the first 

 trench is completed, mark out a second four feet 

 wide, as before. Now dig the surface soil of the 

 second trench to the depth of one foot, or as deep 

 as the best steel spades can be made to dig, setting 

 them as nearly perpendicular as possible. Throw 

 tbe top soil of the second trench into the bottom 

 of the first ; then, with a shovel, scrape up all the 

 loose earth that fell from the spade in digging the 

 first spit of the second trench, and throw it into- 

 the first. This done, next dig the subsoil of the 

 second trench one foot deeper, and throw it into 

 the first trench upon the top soil that was thrown 

 from the second. Scrape up all the crumbs, as be- 

 fore, and throw them on top of the subsoil. If th© 

 ground is to be trenched only two spades deep, 

 then loosen up the bottom soil with the pick as far 

 as the pick can be sent in, throwing out aU the- 

 largo stones as you work along. If the ground is 

 to be trenched three or four feet deep, this last 

 picking will not be so necessary. If there are large 

 quantities of vegetable refuse at hand, such as grass, 

 weeds, rotten leaves, straw, clippings of hedges, or 

 very smaU brushwood, it may be thrown into tho 

 bottom of the trenches as they are proceeded with. 

 Let this trenching be done well, for remember that 

 this will be the last opportunity you will ever have 

 of doing it ; and I apprehend no one will deny that 

 it is always better to have a small vineyard don© 

 well, than to have a large one managed badly. It 

 may be objected to by some persons, that the sur- 

 face soil should be thrown into the bottom of the 

 trench, and the subsoil upon tlie top to plant the 

 young vines in; but when it is remembered that 

 the yoxmg vines will soon root down into the good 

 soil below, and that the surface soil will become 

 better every year by applications of manure or 

 compost and cultivation, I think those objections 

 will soon vanish. Let the third and fourth trenches 

 be done as tlie first and second, and so on through 

 the piece. 



If the vineyard to be trenched be a very steep 

 hill-side, it will require terracing. This is best 

 done by beginning at the foot of the hill. Stretch 

 a line as a guide, and commence by trenching as on 

 level ground. The soil thrown from the first trench 

 will not require to be drawn away, but merely 

 turned over and made level, so as to form a terrace, 



