280 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ond year, and at the end of the second year, they will make a 

 good vine, as they should have done the first year, but failed, 

 b}^ reason of not starting early enough. I buy young vines 

 because I get their whole system of roots. It is the roots I 

 want ; I care nothing about the top of a tree or vine ; I will 

 make the top, if you will give me the roots, but I caunot 

 make roots in open-air culture, having nothing but the top 

 to aid in producing them. 



The question is frequently asked. When is the best time to 

 set vines, — the fall or spring? The best time to do it is when 

 you can do it best, without regard to the season. If your land 

 is in good condition, if you can get your vines early in au- 

 tumn, and can set them out, you will obtain a little better 

 result the next year, than you will if you set them in the 

 spring. 



If you set them in the spring, you avoid the risk of loss 

 if the winter should be particularly unfavorable. Some 

 three years ago, I set out a thousand vines in the autumn. 

 They arrived very late, about Thanksgiving time, and I 

 had just time to set them into the ground before it froze up. 

 The land was bare and exceedingly dry all winter, and the 

 following spring was dry, up to the first of June. The result 

 was, that seventy-five per cent of the vines never started at 

 all. That was a very severe experience ; it is not likely to 

 happen again in my time ; but still, it is a thing that does 

 sometimes occur. Nevertheless, I would set out vines in the 

 autumn, in the face of that experience, if I could set them 

 out early, the soil being in a proper condition. 



And this matter of the proper condition of the soil is 

 worthy of a moment's consideration. If your soil is mellow, 

 it is all right as far as its mechanical texture is concerned. 



If it is too wet, it is in an unfavorable state, whether it is 

 in the fall or spring. Sometimes, in autumn, it is very wet, 

 and there is no time when the soil is mellow and really just 

 right to set out grapes. In that case, it is better simply to 

 heel them in, and wait until the following spring. It is im- 

 portant, either in the fall or spring, to set them out as early 

 in the season as possible, so as to give them the advantage of 

 all their root-forming power, that they may start early and 

 strong. 



