70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



they have made such an enormous quantity of wood, that the 

 formation of fruit buds was impossible. 



But I did not mean to speak of pruning immediately. I was 

 speaking of planting, a subject on which, it seems to me, to be 

 important that we should talk plainly, because so many arc 

 planting grapes, and so many are likely to be misled by the old 

 practice, and by the written instructions copied from books, in 

 regard to trenching, manuring, and excessive feeding, which 

 would probably cheat them of success instead of giving them 

 success. 



In planting the grape, as I said before, in regard to manure, 

 I should prepare the land as if for corn. I should plant in 

 rows north and south ; the rows ten feet apart, the vines six feet 

 apart in the row, so that you would have wide rows to work in 

 with your plough, your cultivator, and your cart for gathering 

 the crop ; and, the plants being six feet apart, you have sixty 

 square feet for each plant, or about seven hundred and twenty- 

 six plants to the acre. Planted at this distance, strong growing 

 vines will be close enough. I have tried all the various distances 

 recommended by the books, and I find that our strong growing, 

 native stock requires more room than the foreign grapes. Half 

 a rod each way, which has been recommended, would be a very 

 good distance; but the method of placing the rows ten feet 

 apart, thus facilitating and cheapening the culture, seems to me 

 to be better, and therefore I adopt it. There is another reason 

 for this mode of planting, and that is, that the sun may lie upon 

 the ground between the rows and heat the earth down to the 

 deepest roots, in the middle of the day. If your espalier is 

 six feet high, you will be able to gather your grapes, by this 

 method, very easily ; and perhaps it is the best method. 



When you plant, keep in view the fact that the grape wants 

 heat at the root, and that, if put too deeply into the soil, they 

 will not get that heat at the root which they need ; and that 

 other fact, that in dry soil they must not be so near the surface 

 as to cause them to suffer from the summer drought. You will 

 plant them about six inches deep. The roots should be spread 

 in every direction carefully, and never left crossing each other ; 

 for if they cross each other the sap is intercepted, and the roots 

 do not perform their functions for the grapes. Having planted 

 them and covered them carefully* with the hoe, I should not 



