SECRETARY'S REPORT. 159 



the grape, and also to enricli it with large quantities of manure, 

 bones, dead animals, &c. 



Trenching is practised in hot countries, and the depth varies 

 according to the heat of their seasons. In France, they trench 

 to the depth of twenty inches ; in Spain, thirty-three ; in Italy, 

 still deeper — often going to the depth of five feet. In this deep 

 soil the long cutting is planted, by aid of a forked instrument, 

 with the aid of the weight of the planter on a stirrup placed on 

 the side of the instrument. The cutting is thrust to the bottom 

 of the loosened soil, and makes roots throughout its whole 

 length. This method of planting is a precaution against the 

 droughts incident to the hot climate of that country, which heats 

 the soil to a great depth, so that the lowest roots have a congenial 

 temperature to grow in. 



I was led out of this practice by a little incident. We had 

 been planting vines, and, at night, one remained. It was taken 

 to the garden and laid in by the heels, to be planted out the 

 next day, but was forgotten. During the succeeding summer 

 the procumbent stem threw out numerous roots into the hot 

 and dry surface soil. This arrested my attention. Why should 

 it throw out roots into the surface soil unless it was on account 

 of its greater heat ? I removed the plants near it and let the 

 experiment go on. This was ten years since ; the vine has 

 never had manure, but has grown vigorously, and has for two 

 years past given , me annually, two bushels of the finest grapes. 

 I have traced one of its roots twenty-five feet, and found it lying 

 at the depth of only four inches from the surface. Here was 

 sufficient proof of the folly of trenching. When you trench and 

 enrich the under soil, the roots go down after the nutriment. 

 Now that sub-soil does not, in most localities, get warmed to 

 more than fifty degrees during our short summers. The surface 

 soil, to the depth of six inches, is heated to seventy and eighty 

 degrees. In this hot surface soil the grape thrives ; in that rich 

 but cool sub-soil, it sucks up rich, but crude and indigestible 

 fluids, which keep it growing late into the autumn, but do not 

 ripen the fruit so early as well digested and ripe fluids would. 

 The fruit is consequently later, and as the grape expends all its 

 energies in ripening off the crop of fruit before it ripens the 

 buds for the next year's crop, the buds do not get well ripened. 

 The fruit of the next season is thereby made later ; the wood 



