238 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE SOIL 



which is host adapted for a vineyard, is light and warm, such as 

 would carry a firstrate crop of corn. It should not be so level ' 

 that water would stand about the roots in winter, and it should 

 be in good heart, but not excessively rich. Indian corn is a 

 good preparatory crop, insuring clean tillage and destruction 

 of all weeds and grass. If, however, the soil be stiff and 

 inclined to clay, and if it be dry, with a slope toward the sun, 

 it may be made to carry grapes by adding to it liberal dressings 

 of vegetable mould, with ashes, plaster, and bone-dust. Such 

 soil should be ploughed very deep to insure good drainage and 

 permeability to warm rains and to the tender roots of the plants. 

 It will, however, never be so good for the grape as the warm 

 loam which we recommend above. 



Wet, spongy, and cold soils are wholly unfit for the grape, 

 and can only be improved by deep trenching and thorough 

 draining with tiles or stone ; but be careful, in such cases, 

 to leave the manure near the surface that the roots may thus 

 be kept within the influence of the summer heat, so that the 

 wood will be well ripened, and the buds made into fruit-buds 

 for the next year's crop. With all these precautions, however, 

 such soil will not give you grapes of the finest quality, unless, 

 indeed, the situation is especially favorable. 



PLANTING THE GRAPE. 



Having ploughed the field as deep as possible, say from nine 

 to twelve inches, carry on about forty loads of compost, made 

 of peat mud, or vegetable mould and barnyard manure, made 

 the season before, and well fermented. Spread on the surface, 

 and cross-plough six inches deep. Mark out your rows ten feet 

 apart, let them run north and south, if possible, and plant the 

 vines six feet apart in the rows. This gives you sixty square 

 feet to each vine, and seven hundfed and twenty-six vines to 

 the acre. These distances will enable you to plough and culti- 

 vate between the rows, and to go with the cart to carry off the 

 crop. The sun will also reach the earth, and warm it to a 

 greater depth than would happen in closer planting, and your 

 vines will keep in better health, and will give you abundant 

 crops. 



