THE VINEYARD AND ITS MANAGEMENT 87 



at all at planting time, the fertilizer should be spread on the 

 surface to be cultivated in or to have its food elements leak 

 down as rains fall. In land in which the providential design 

 for grapes is plainly manifested, the vine at no time responds 

 heartily to fertilizers, the good of stable manure probably 

 coming for the most part from its effects on the texture and 

 water-holding capacity of the soil. The newly set plant is 

 not in need of outside nourishment; to put rank manure or 

 strong commercial fertilizers about the roots of a young newly 

 set vine is plant infanticide. 



CARE OF YOUNG VINES 



Virgil calls the period in the life of the vine between the 

 setting and the first vintage, the "tender nonage/' and tells 

 us that at this time the vines need careful rearing ; so they do, 

 now as then, American grapes as well as the grapes of ancient 

 Rome. Fortunately, any departure from normal well-being 

 is easily told in the grape, for the color of the leaf is as accurate 

 an index to the health and vigor of the vine as the color of the 

 tongue or the beat of the pulse in man. A change of color 

 from the luxuriant green of thrifty grape foliage, especially the 

 yellow hue indicating that the leaf -green is not functioning 

 properly, suggests that the vines are sick or need nursing in 

 some detail of care. When all goes well, however, the amazing 

 energy of Nature is nowhere better seen among plants than 

 in the growth of the grape, so that much of the care is in the 

 use of the knife ; in fact, as we shall see, the grape almost lives 

 by the knife the first two years out. 



The first year. 



The vines having been pruned and staked at planting, these 

 operations need no attention in the first summer. Many 

 varieties send up several shoots as growth starts, and, except 



