30 



It will be apparent that sucli plants should not fall into the hands of any but good 

 cultivators, who are willing to employ one year of assiduous attention to bring them to 

 a size that will endure the ordinary trials of the seasons without extra care. 



A plant of best character may easily be so treated as to lose all of the excellences of 

 its beginning. 



The course of treatment which I am now about to recommend is calculated to com- 

 plete the development and maintain the excellence of the best, by affording the most 

 flivorable conditions for the roots and canes at every stage of their progress. 



The method of occupying only a moderate space of ground with each vine, after full 

 establishment for vineyard culture, and of training it accordingly when the vine is of 

 ^.ompact habit, has been found by long and extended experience to be the most advan- 

 tageous in consequence of the facilities which it affords for controlling both roots and 

 canes, upon which successful management depends. 



After setting the vines at a certain depth, with an excavation to remain open during 

 the season, and filling it in the fixll, there remains for the vineyard one operation to be 

 performed, at the beginning of the next season, to complete the planting. 



The operation is called layering, but more properly bedding, as I shall hereafter 

 designate it, and is needed to perfect the plan of planting the vine so that it will com- 

 pletely and uniformly occupy the space allotted to it with fibrous roots, which will have 

 their center or axis at any desirable depth that may be fixed upon. 



A trench is dug one foot wide and to about the depth of the principal roots, which 

 will be to the top of the cone or mound in the case of single-eye plants, and to the top 

 of the ridge if a layer. 



The length of the bedding distance may be sixteen inches, and the stake by which 

 the cane was supported last season may be moved that distance, which will place it 

 toward the end of the trench. The cane is to be cut so that it will be long enough to 

 lie along the trench a distance of sixteen inches, and turning up against the stake, place 

 one bud at the surface of the ground from which the cane of the next season is to 

 spring. 



The bottom and sides of the trench must be made inviting to the formation of roots 

 from the portion of cane laid in it, and may be half-filled at the time of laying down, 

 making it compact as at planting, the remainder to be put in at mid-summer. At the 

 bend, where the vine turns to ascend by the stake, a stone the size of a fist, or a little 

 larger, may be used to keep the vine in place, holding the stone with one hand ■while 

 the soil is made firm upon it with the other, so that the bend may be as nearly angular 

 as the vine will permit without breaking, which will favor the early formation of roots. 

 When the vines do not make strong canes the first season, the operation must be defer- 

 red until the next, in which ease the cane must be cut down to the bud nearest the sur- 

 face of the ground ; and if the past season's growth has been very feeble, the cavity of 

 the first season must be again opened to give its feeble roots the most tender treatment. 

 11 Vines planted in this manner will not be damaged by judicious 



I plowing, at proper seasons, which is indispensable for the economi- 



I cal performance of the tillage that is requisite for the prosperity of 



If vineyards. Plate No. 21 illustrates the description of the opera- 



ili; tion. The dotted lines. A, represent the stake and cane of last sea- 



son in their place ; B shows the trench, with the cane pruned to the 

 proper length lying in it, and the stake in its new position. 



The oblong .figure of three by four feet occupied by one vine 



may be divided by imaginary lines into three portions, each sixteen 



by thirty-six inches, and the roots of the vine, with few exceptions, 



_ _ will traverse nearly equal distances, and consequently be of nearly 



^' _ " equal length in occupying all of its parts in the manner here 



' "-^ " directed. 



Plate No. 21. rp^ pkut viucs for the plan shown on page 31, if the fence is six 



feet high or upward, and plants of ordinarily good quality are used, they should be set 



