342 lona and Delaware. 



broken up by spade or subsoiler at least twenty inches deep (two feet will 

 be better) : but, if the subsoil is thrown to the surface, good soil must be 

 brought from elsewhere to place around the roots of the newly-planted 

 vines. The vines should be trained low, the arms not more than one foot 

 from the ground : four feet is high enough for the trellis. So trained, the 

 fruit has the benefit of heat thrown back from the fjround in cool nights, 

 and is thus kept at a more even temperature night and day. I have a 

 vineyard of several thousand vines, all trained with arms and spurs. These 

 vines have produced large and regular crops, year after year ; and I know 

 of no better method of training. If there are any perfect buds or perfectly 

 ripe wood on the vine, it is that remaining after pruning. 



The vines should not be suffered to ripen more than two or three clus- 

 ters of fruit the second season after planting ; and, unless very large, should 

 not bear till the third year. The distance I would recommend for Dela- 

 ware and lona is four feet in the row, the rows six feet apart. The lona 

 may be planted six by six ; but the Delaware, if planted at this distance, 

 will set more fruit than it should ripen. I am satisfied, that, as a general 

 thing, we plant all vines too far apart, and injure them by heavy bearing. 



All vines must be covered with earth in winter. This is decidedly neces- 

 sary. Even in warm winters, this covering will insure one-third more fruit, 

 and the clusters will be much more perfect : a crop of fruit is thus made 

 certain. This covering is very little trouble if the vines are trained with either 

 double or single arms : but the arms should be taken directly from the ground; 

 that is, started as low down as is possible, and not, as is shown in most 

 books on grape-culture, taken from the two upper buds of a cane cut at one 

 foot from the ground, started from near the surface. They should be 

 trained at an angle until the lower bar or wire is reached, and then directly 

 along it. When trained this way, they almost drop to the ground when un- 

 tied from the trellis. The spurs being short, all are easily covered by plough 

 or spade. In building trellis, use three wires, — the first, one foot from the 

 ground ; the second, fifteen inches from that ; and the third, within an inch 

 of the top of posts, which are four feet above the ground. I first built my 

 trellis with upright wires, but soon had them removed. 



Warsaw, Hanxock County, III. ^- If- -^-i^y- 



