84 MANUAL OF AMERICAN GRAPE-GROWING 



the roots when the vine is planted. Neither is time saved 

 in digging beforehand, for the sun-baked and rain-washed sides 

 of holes long dug would surely have to be pared afresh. It is, 

 however, quite worth while to throw the surface soil to one 

 side and that lower to the other, that a spadeful of moist, 

 virile, surface soil may be put next to the roots. 



There are, no doubt, some soils in which the holes might be 

 blasted out with dynamite, as, for instance, in a shallow soil 

 with the hardpan near the surface and good subsoil beneath. 

 It is very questionable, however, whether these defective soils 

 should be used for commercial plantings as long as there still 

 remain unplanted many acres in all grape regions of good deep 

 land for the grape. To such as are attracted by " dynamite 

 farming," minute descriptions of methods of use of dynamite 

 and even demonstrations may be secured from manufacturers 

 of the explosive. 



Time to plant. 



The best time to plant the vine in cold climates is early spring, 

 when sun and showers arouse the spirit of growth in plants, 

 and nutritive solutions proceed quickly and unerringly to their 

 preappointed places. At this time, the much mutilated vine 

 can undertake best the double task of making fresh roots and 

 opening the dormant leaves. Fall planting puts forward the 

 work, thus diminishing the rush of early spring when vineyard 

 operations crowd, and, no doubt, when all is favorable, enables 

 the vines to start a little more quickly. However, there are 

 frequently serious losses from planting in the fall. In cold 

 winters the grip of frost is sufficient to wrench the young vine 

 from its place and sometimes all but heaves it out of the soil. 

 There is, also, great liability of winter-killing in vines trans- 

 planted in the autumn, not because of greater tenderness of 

 the plant, but because of greater porosity of the loosened soil 

 which enables the cold to strike to a greater depth. These 



