Supporting the Vine. 



169 



M. de Macheco, land-owner at Brionde (Upper 

 Loire), was one of the first to substitute wires. His meth- 

 od consists in setting on the rows of plants a line of per- 

 manent stakes, six feel high, and ten or twelve feet 

 apart. These stakes have a wire of moderate thickness 

 fastened at the top. A small stake driven in at the 

 foot of each plant supports the shoots until, reaching 

 the wire, they are there fastened, and trained in a hori- 

 zontal direction. This system presents few advantages 

 over the ordinary mode of training. It requires the use 

 of stakes, and the shoots are attached to it in too con- 

 fused a manner. 



Later, in 1845, M. Andre Michaux, correspondent 

 of the Institute, proposed a somewhat analagous system, 

 which is as follows : 



Posts made of hard wood, six feet in length-, and 

 from two to two and a quarter inches thick, are driven 

 into the ground at the distance of sixteen feet from 

 each other, along each row of plants. [Fig. 69.] The 

 first and last are strengthened by means of braces, B. 



[FlG. 69.] Vines Supported by Micbaux's Syste?n. 



Two wires are fixed to the stakes, by means of little 

 hooks driven into their side. These wires are removed 

 '5 



