146 GRAPE CULTURE AND WINE-MAKING. 



remains to be proved by experiments. Our doubt originates 

 from the generally established facts that, when vines are pruned 

 for quantity^ the quality will suffer. This fact is proved by sci- 

 entific observation. The question which arises in our mind is, 

 whether vines planted eight feet apartj^roducing eight pounds 

 of grapes, pruned to the very minimum of the Californian jaeld, 

 or whether sixteen vines, planted on eight feet of ground, produc- 

 ing one fourth of a pound of grapes to each vine, would make a 

 better wine. It is true that one vine has, in the first case, as 

 much soil to live on as sixteen vines in the other, but whether 

 the sixteen vines do not possess more roots, leaves, and power to 

 extract from the atmosphere more congenial elements for the de- 

 velopment of that fine quality and bouquet they should have, is 

 a question which we are not prepared at this time to answer. It 

 is our intention to make experiments on this subject in future, 

 and it would be well if other planters in different localities would 

 do the same.] 



The ground to your right, being the top ground, is thrown into 

 the bottom of the hole, then that to your left. This done, you 

 proceed to 



Planiing. — There are two ways o^ planting— one with cuttings, 

 and the other with one-year-old vines. There is a good deal of 

 difference of opinion among good and practical vine-planters. 

 Some argue that if a cutting is properly planted at once orf'the 

 spot of its destination, it will be more advanced in its third year, 

 and, consequently, it will bear in that year more than the rooted 

 vine, which is first set as a cutting in the nursery, and the next 

 year transplanted on its destined spot. It is reasonable to sup- 

 pose this to be the case ; but it still leaves a doubt in the mind 

 whether a large tract of land can be, or will be, as well worked as 

 a small one. In a nursery, by good care, the cuttings can be root- 

 ed four times as strong as in a large field; besides, in the latter 

 case, whether the vine has good roots or not, it is left where first 

 planted ; but when the rooted vines are taken out of the nursery 

 for transplanting, the planter will select only those having fault- 

 less roots. But the greatest advantage of the nursery is, in my 

 opinion, the fact that if a planter intends to plant one hundred 

 acres of vineyard with cuttings, he will have to cultivate one 

 hundred acres during the summer ; but if he plants his cuttings 

 for this one hundred acres in a nftrsery, two acres of ground will 

 be enough to raise sixty-eight thousand rooted vines, the number 

 required for one hundred acres. Now, to cultivate these two 

 acres in the nursery, it wiU require ten days' labor with one horse ; 



