Preparatory Operations. 



21 



2d. Fences protect the produce of the vineyard from 

 the depredations of marauders and dogs. 



But all kinds of fences are not equally adapted to 

 vineyards. Evergreen hedges, planted on the level 

 ground, often keep up a moisture which favors white 

 frosts, or retards the ripening of the grapes ; besides, the 

 roots of these hedges injure the grapes, by exhausting 

 the soil to a distance of from twenty to twenty-six feet. 

 Stone fences are too expensive, unless on a small scale, 

 or for the protection of very valuable crops. If suitable 

 rock, or stones, be at hand, walls may be erected to pro- 

 tect the vineyards. Or, the vineyard may be sur- 

 rounded with a ditch about five feet wide at the top, 

 twenty inches at the bottom and three feet three inches 

 in depth. The earth should be thrown on the outer 

 edge, like a levee, or embankment. To prevent the 

 soil from sliding back into the ditch, it will be neces- 

 sary to sod the banks, and to plant the top with such 



[F,G. I.] 



