44 BRIGHT ON GRATE CULTURE. 



eacli space, and drop the peas in this furrow or drill, so 

 as to form hills about two or three feet apart in the 

 drill, say ten or fifteen peas in a hill, and cover with 

 the plow or hoe. Afterwards cultivate a little to keep 

 down weeds, just as you would ordinary peas or corn. 

 It takes about half a bushel, or less, of seed to plant an 

 acre of vineyard in this way, and the seed costs about 

 81.25 per bushel in Baltimore. 



This pea vine makes a very perfect shade for the 

 roots of the grape, while growing, during July and Au- 

 gust, and when cut down, just as it comes into flower, 

 in the early part of September^ furnishes a large quan- 

 tity of valuable litter for mulching and manure. It 

 does not exhaust the soil, because it returns to it more 

 of carbon and nitrogen than it abstracts from it; and it 

 only takes potash, lime, &c., from the sub-soil, to return 

 it to the top-soil in a state better fitted for the food of 

 plants. We have used the kind of pea known as the 

 clay^ or cow pea, and also the hlach eye pea. The early 

 hlach is said to be the best for a northern climate. 



"We consider this method of mulching vineyards very 

 economical, and amply sufficient to protect the roots of 

 vines from excessive heat and drouth. Since we com- 

 menced this practice, we have learned that a similar 

 method of mulching has been employed in France for 

 many years. In Redding's Treatise on Modern Wines, 

 published in London, in 1833, he states that, ^^ in some 

 parts of France, lupines (a kind of pea) are sown among 

 the vines, and buried when in flower around their roots, 



