172 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



had collected a great quantity, from along fences, &c., before 

 the ground froze. The field where my vines were to be 

 planted, had been in clover the previous year, and all the 

 second crop of the clover had been suffered to die on the 

 ground. As soon as the ground would do to plough, I spread 

 the contents of the pit, bones, sods, &c., as evenly as possible 

 over the ground, breaking the skulls and largest bones with a 

 sledge. I then run a furrow across the field, as deep as the 

 plough could go, and then another plough in the same furrow, 

 which threw out the sub-soil to the depth of sixteen inches. 

 The first plough then commenced a second furrow, and of 

 course turned the slice of sward, with the bones on it, into the 

 bottom of the first, and the second plough then threw the sub- 

 soil over it, and so on till the whole field was thus trenched. 

 The vines were then planted in rows, six feet apart, except, 

 that between every third and fourth row, a space of nine feet 

 was left, to admit a cart with manure. These vines were put 

 but six feet apart in the rows. 



" G-rafting Vines. — In December, 1843, being about plant- 

 ing a quantity of foreign vines, in a green-house which was 

 built by the former owner of the farm, it occurred to me that 

 I might get fruit sooner, if I could graft upon old vines. The 

 difiiculty was in removing the old vines. I had some Isabella 

 vines of four years old, which I had been obliged to remove 

 the year before, and these I judged best to make the attempt 

 with. I took twelve of them, not one of which was less than 

 an inch in diameter, at the surface of the ground, and in 

 taking them from the ground I used the greatest care to pre- 

 serve every root. I first took a trowel and dug down beside 

 the vine, till I came to a root, and then followed it out to its 

 •extremity, and then went to the next root, and so on, so that 

 I was sometimes an hour digging up a single \dne. I then 

 planted them outside the house, carried the stem to the in- 

 side, under ground, sawed it off two or three inches below the 

 surface, split the stock, and inserted two scions in each, 

 pressed the earth as tight as possible about them, and so left 



