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THE GENESEE FARMER. 



or bench. The -width of these terraces will de- 

 pend apon the declivity of the hiU-side ; and they 

 will require eoine kind of -walling, or sodding, to 

 keep them iip, so as to prevent heavy rains from 

 creating currents and washing down the soil. If 

 the groimd be thoroughly trenched, there will be 

 found, in most hills, stone enough to do the walling ; 

 but whore there is not stone enough, the embank- 

 ments may be kept up by covering them with sods. 

 The embankments should stand out a little at the 

 foot, or tailing back towards the hill, so as to pre- 

 vent sliding down as much as possible, and the sods 

 cut in the form of a rhomb. They then have a 

 mechanical power of holding each other up, which 

 they lose when cut perfectly square; and the 

 trouble of cutting the one is the same as that of 

 the other. To get the sods of the desired shape, 

 etretch a line across the turf to be cut, and make 

 a cut therein with the spade or racer to the depth 

 of two or three inches. Then move the line, and 

 make another cut twelve or fifteen inches from, 

 and parallel with, the first, and so on until a num- 

 ber are cut. Then stretch the line diagonally 

 across these cuts, and at the same distances, and 

 cut as before. This gives the sod the desired shape, 

 and, when put up, all to fit. When laid up, they 



z 



Fig. 1. 



will somewhat resemble fig. 1. Should there be 

 any danger ot the sods sliding down after this, 

 they can be fastened up with wooden pegs, say a 

 foot long and an inch in diameter, and driven 

 through the sod into the bank. But sods are not 

 as good as stones ; the grass tends to create damp 

 during the night, and its roots growing in the bank 

 absorb a great deal of moisture and nourishment 

 from the earth that properly belongs to the vines. 

 Stones do not do this, but they absorb a great deal 

 of warmth from the sun during the day, and give 

 it off slowly during the night, thereby tending to 

 keep the earth and atmosphere warmer through 

 the night. These walls, if properly laid up, wLl 

 last as long as the vines. And if the trenching be 

 thorouglily done, and the vines carefully managed, 

 I see no reason why they should not continue to 

 thrive and be remunerative for a hundred years ; 

 since we know there are vines still in existence up- 

 wards of two hundred years old, and bearing nearly 

 a ton of grapes to a vine every year — among 

 which is the large Hamhurgh vine at Hampton 

 Court, near London, England, which frequently 

 bears from two thousand five hundred to two thou- 

 sand six hundred bunches, weighing from one 

 thousand six hundred to two thousand pounds — 

 although it can hardly be expected such vines will 

 be grown in tlie open air. 



There are other modes of preparing the ground 

 than trenching with the spade. Tlie next best is to 

 plow the ground with a large plow, and follow in 

 the open furrow with a subsoil plow, thereby break- 

 ing the ground to the deptli of eighteen to twenty- 

 four inches. Next to subsoiling, will be good, deep 



plowing; and next to that, merely digging large 

 holes, and planting in a good compost mixed vnxh. 

 the soil out of the holes. 



The trenching, as first recommended, in ordi- 

 nary soils, will cost from seventy-five to one hun- 

 dred dollars per acre; and trenching two spades 

 deep, without throwing out the loose earth, about 

 fifty dollars per acre. The plowing with large 

 plows and heavy teams, and subsoiling, will cost 

 about twenty-five dollars per acre; and merely 

 digging holes, or good plowing, will cost from ten 

 dollars to fifteen dollars per acre — but this wiU 

 depend on the character of the soil, and the num- 

 ber of holes to be dug. 



The best time to prepare the ground is in the fall 

 previous to planting in the spring. This should be 

 done in fine, open, dry weather; for when done ia 

 wet weather, the ground becomes trodden into 

 slimy, pasty clods, which, in some soils, when they 

 have become dried and buried beneath the surface, 

 are almost impervious to air and water. And the 

 ground should be left in a^ rough a state as possi- 

 ble all winter ; for the rougher the soil, the greater 

 will be the surface exposed to the atmosphere to 

 be acted upon and pulverized by the winter's 

 freezing, and enriched by the rich gases and salts 

 which have been collected by the rains and snows, 

 in winter, in falling through the atmosphere. 



liocheeter, JV. T., Jan'y, 1S59. JOS I AH SALTER. 



fit! 



THE VnTEYAEDS OF THE RHINE. 



TnB Scottish Qumterly Journal of Agriculture 

 contains an interesting article on " Rhenish "Wine 

 and Rhineland," a few extracts from which wo 

 think wiU be acceptable to the readers of the Gene- 

 see Farmer. 



The writer visited the most celebrated -vineyards 

 on the Rhine, in 1855, and again in the summer of 

 1857. In 1855, the crop was almost a universal 

 failure, owing to the late frosts in April destroying 

 the fruit-bearing shoots of the vine; while in 1857 

 the vines were loaded with an exuberance of fully 

 ripened fruit. In 1855, search had to be made 

 among the luxuriant green leaves for a bunch of 

 grapes, and, when found, the fruit proved diminu- 

 tive and unripe. In 1857, on the other hand, 

 bunch was suspended over and beside bunch in 

 such profusion that surprise was excited that so 

 small a plant as the pruned vine was able to bear 

 so large a q.uantity ot fruit as far to outweigh the 

 weight of the plant itself, and which it could not 

 have done without ample support. Everywhere 

 the grapo was presented to the tourist., in inviting 

 bunches of red and white, at the low cost of six 

 kreutzers (four cents) the bimch. The writer 

 states that he ate grapes grown in the open air on 

 the banks of Lofce Oomo "of much finer fragrance 

 than from any vinery in the United Kingdom." 



" In every respect the vine is a remarkable plant. 

 No one could anticipate, on first seeing a vine-plant 



