32 BRIGHT ON GRAPE CULTURE. 



writers. Indeed, if the soil be good, and the sub-soil 

 be porous or well drained, we think deep trenching not 

 only unnecessary but positively injurious to the long- 

 continued health and fruitfulness of the vine. If the 

 vineyard be deeply plowed and sub-soiled, or otherwise 

 worked, so as to give eighteen inches of good mellow, 

 well pulverized earth, it is all that is required. We do 

 not desire to invite the roots of the grape down into the 

 sub-soil. "We do not consider it necessary to manure 

 the whole soil heavily before planting a vineyard. It 

 is a waste of valuable material. We prefer to work the 

 manure into the surface of the earth, from year to year, 

 as needed, and thus invite the roots upwards into the 

 warm, rich surface soil, instead of downwards into the 

 cold sterile sub-soil. 



We do not consider a very rich garden soil by any 

 means the best for the grape. It will cause too lux- 

 uriant a growth of wood. We prefer to apply a top 

 dressing of good well-rotted stable manure, hog manure, 

 or slaughter-house off*l, well composted with peat or sod, 

 as a top dressing, in the fall or early spring, before 

 using the special manures recommended in another part 

 of this work. This will enable the vines to perfect a 

 good crop of fruit, or to form the necessary amount of 

 wood, each year, without exciting a late growth of suc- 

 culent canes, liable to be winter-killed. As to the quan- 

 tity of stimulating manure required, we will say that it 

 should be about the same as for an acre of wheat, say 

 ^^^wenty to fifty horse-loads of good, rich,, carbonaceous 



