224 Vineyard Culture. 



The price of this horse cultivator is twenty-six dol- 

 lars. 



This implement, drawn by one horse, sufficing to 

 work an area of three and three-fourths acres per day, 

 and the horse and man costing one dollar and forty 

 cents per day, we have an expenditure of about thirty- 

 five cents per acre for each dressing. 



M. Messager has contrived a large plow-share [Fig. 

 92] to do the light dressings. Of this we have already 

 spoken. It is fixed to his plow [Fig. 91] in the place 

 of the share and mold-board intended for laying bare 

 the roots. This implement, which is of great simplici- 

 ty, is very effective, and only requires one horse. To 

 work the space between two rows of plants, forty inches 

 apart, it has to go over that space twice. From this it 

 follows that two and one half acres may be thus dressed 

 per day, making an expenditure of fifty-six cents per 

 acre, for one dressing. 



This expenditure is a little more than with the horse 

 cultivator of la Loyere ; nevertheless, the simplicity of 

 M. Messager's implement, which we have seen at work, 

 induces us to give it the preference. Moreover, the 

 Comte de la Loyere's cultivator does not work very 

 well on weedy ground. 



The cost of the lighter dressing by the plow, of 

 which we have just spoken, is applicable to vines culti- 

 vated in rows regularly laid out, forty inches apart. 

 But, if the space between the rows is alternately twen- 

 ty-four and forty inches, the cost of this operation will 

 be greater -, for the plow, in such cases, can only be 

 employed over two-thirds of the area ; the cost per 

 acre, for each working, will then stand thus : 



