APPENDIX D. 



F. RUBENS UPON THE VINE AND ITS TREATMENT. 



I. Tlie Vine and its Propagation. — II. Tlie Vineyard. — III. Care of a Bearing 

 Vineyard. — IV. Preserving and Sliipping Grapes. — V. Diseases of the Grape- 

 vine. — VI. Choice Varieties of Grapes for Wine-making. — VII. Average Pro- 

 duction of Wine in Europe. 



I. 



THE VINE AND ITS PROPAGATION. 



Fig. 1. 



The Grape-vine {Vitis vinifera), on account 

 of its climbing propensities, must be helped in 

 the vineyards, either directly or indirectly, by 

 training it on poles or trellises, and by prun- 

 ing, etc. The roots of the vine will expand 

 much and far. The soil should be loose. The 

 duration or age of a vine depends much upon 

 its well-developed trunk. The vine has shoots, 

 which are distinguished as those which will 

 produce fruit and those which do not produce 

 fruit. Those which produce fruit grow out 

 from the last year's wood ; the others sprout 

 from old wood or the trunk of the vine. 

 Side shoots are represented in Fig. 1. 



Propagation of the Grape-vine. 



1. Through Seed. — This is a plan not much 

 adopted, since the plants take from six to eight 

 and ten years before they produce fruit. Sel- 

 dom will the seed produce the same quality as the original. 

 Through this mode, however, very choice varieties have frequent- 

 ly originated, which will be more identified with the local cli- 

 mate, and for this reason more hardy. Most of the early varie- 

 ties are produced from seeds. Experiments have proved that 

 grapes from seedlings ripen more early than the originals. The 

 seed may be planted jjbout two or three inches apart, and one inch 

 deep. The seedlings will grow, by good care and on rich soil, 

 from one and a half to two feet high during the summer. The 

 best shoot is cut down to two buds, and the rest nicely .pruned 

 off. The following year the vines are pruned down to two buds 

 again. From this time they are treated the same as planted cut- 

 tings. 



