CULTIVATION OF THE VINEYARD. 283 



in cultivating ; you thus continue to prune it, and you prune 

 it too late in the season ; you not only check the system of 

 long roots, but you check the making of roots at all. If 

 you break off the tops of the shoots, you stop the growth of 

 the roots, and you do not get the same growth at the end of 

 the season. Hence you want to train it. That can be done by 

 putting a stake by its side. Occasionally, if the tops spread 

 round, so as to be in the way of cultivation, pass a string 

 around, so as to tie it all up in a loose bundle. But if it 

 does not make growth sufficient to be in the way, let it alone. 



I must say a word about the cultivation, which is the 

 same for every year. I would cultivate the whole of the soil, 

 but I would cultivate very shallow. I never disturb the earth 

 in my vineyards more than about an inch and a half deep. 

 This I have done the last two years with an implement per- 

 haps best represented by a Thomas' smoothing harrow. I did 

 not get his harrow, because it was not in proper shape for my 

 use. I made an ordinary V harrow, which spread four feet, 

 that being adapted to the distance between the rows of vines. 



The peculiarity of this is, that it is tilled with small, round, 

 steel teeth, half an inch in diameter, that slope backwards an 

 angle of about forty degrees. They are placed an inch apart. 

 It is a kind of a comb, or horse-rake. It goes over the ground 

 and smooths it, and cultivates it as deep as you please. 



In the spring, when the ground is hard, it should be loaded 

 just enough so that it will enter the surface and break it up ; 

 and it should be used often enouo-h throuf^h the season to 

 keep the ground mellow. It will kill all the weeds, if you 

 use it the right way. The best time to kill a weed is as soon 

 as it is born, before you can see it. That is the most profit- 

 able time. When the seed germinates, and is just ready to 

 break through the ground, or even if it has just broken 

 through, the slightest disturbance of the soil disarranges its 

 connections, and it dies in the presence of a hot sun. But let 

 it get hold of the soil and make roots, and then, even if you 

 disturb it considerably, you do not kill it ; it has made a hold 

 upon the soil ; it lives in spite of you. Hence an implement 

 of this kind is only adapted to the destruction of weeds in 

 their earlier stages. If they go on later than that, you must 

 take a difi'erent implement to get them out. I have used this. 



