THE CULTURE OP THE GRAPE. 159 



forms a good soil for a vine ; vegetable substances alone 

 should be used to enrich it, such as the leaves and tendrils of 

 the vine, the residue of the grape when pressed, and, failing 

 these, the leaves of trees collected when green and formed 

 into a compost with earth. The ground should be Avell 

 trenched, if it will admit of it, or loosened with the mattock 

 and pickaxe. The different parts of the soil should be inti- 

 mately mixed, keeping some fine soil at top to set the plants 

 in. When the ground is prepared, holes are dug in rows four 

 or five feet wide, at the same distance from each other, so as 

 to alternate ; some of the finest of the soil is put into each 

 hole, and the vine plants, which have been rooted in a nur- 

 sery, or else simple cuttings, are carefully inserted, pressing 

 the mould round the roots, and levelhng the earth. Rooted 

 plants will bear the second or third year, but cuttings take a 

 much longer time. The usual instrument of tillage in stony 

 and rocky soils is a two-pronged fork fixed in a short handle, 

 at an angle less than a right angle with the prongs, which are 

 a foot long, and very strong, like a double pickaxe. This is 

 struck into the ground, and then drawn towards the workman, 

 wliile the handle is lifted, which acts as a lever in raising the 

 soil. The next year, it is usual to prune the young vine 

 down to one, or, at most, two eyes or buds ; but some experi- 

 enced vine-dressers recommend deferring this operation to the 

 second year, by which, although the vine will not be so for- 

 ward in fruiting, it will be much strengthened, and fully repay 

 the apparent loss of time in the end. In the third year, the 

 vine is trained ; that is, the shoots are tied to upright stakes 

 planted at each root, or they are laid in an arch and tied from 

 one root to another along the ground.* 



" When vineyards are established in the plains, where, 

 sometimes, as those of Medoc, they produce very good wine, 

 the intervals between the plants can be stirred by the plough, 

 although forking and digging by hand is more common ; hoeing 



* This mode of training- is by no means universal, but is common in France, and 

 in the vicinity of the Rhine. 



