82 Vineyard Culture. 



During the following summer the two reserved eyes 

 shoot out, and, at the same time, each joint of the 

 layer, covered by the soil, produces a whorl of roots. 

 The year following, at planting time, this layer is 

 weaned : that is, it is cut, as at A [Fig. 9] and then 

 taken up with care, to be transplanted elsewhere. 

 These layers then appear as in Figure 10. 



These roots, from layers, can not be used to make a 

 vineyard ; their production is too costly, and it would, 

 besides, b difficult to obtain a sufficient number of 

 them. A certain number of shoots, from the stocks 

 of a neighboring vineyard might, it is true, be used, but 

 experience has proved that this operation greatly weak- 

 ens the stocks. It will, therefore, J>e better to have 

 recourse to rooted plants, or cuttings planted perma- 

 nently, unless it is to replace a few missing vines. 

 Nevertheless, layering is customary in certain vine- 

 yards, either to replace missing stocks, or to renew the 

 whole plantation ; but, in the latter case, it is not one 

 shoot only, but the entire stock, which is laid down in 

 the ground, in order to bring out, at convenient points, 

 one or more shoots. Besides, these layers remain per- 

 manently in their place. This constitutes another ope- 

 ration, called vine-layering, and which we will examine 

 when we come to the planting and keeping up of a 

 vineyard. 



[Here, as in some other practices, Americans think they 

 can improve upon the European methods. Layering is prac- 

 ticed to a considerable extent, in established vineyards, for the 

 sake of filling up gaps that may have been caused by the death 

 of a plant, from any cause. The plan recommended by our 

 author is generally adopted, only that we take care to select 



