90 MANUAL OF AMERICAN GRAPE-GROWING 



crop grown, as the term was first used, to protect the soil, but 

 the word is now used to include green-manuring crops as well. 

 Catch-crops seldom have a place in most vineyards, but cover- 

 crops are often grown. 



Catch-crops. 



Catch-crops are not, as a rule, profitable in commercial 

 vineyards; they may bring temporary profit but in the long 

 run they are usually detrimental to the vines. It may pay and 

 the grape may not be injured in some localities, if such truck 

 crops as potatoes, beans, tomatoes and cabbage are grown 

 between the rows or even in the rows for the first year and 

 possibly the second. Land, to do duty by the two crops, 

 however, must be excellent and the care of both crops must 

 be of the best. Growing gooseberries, currants, any of the 

 brambles, or even strawberries, is a poor procedure unless the 

 vineyard is small, the land very valuable or other conditions 

 prevail which make intensive culture possible or necessary. 

 The objections to catch-crops in the vineyard are two : they 

 rob the vines of food and moisture and endanger them to injury 

 from tools in caring for the catch-crop. 



Sometimes the grape itself is planted as a catch-crop in the 

 vineyard. That is, twice the number of vines required in a 

 row for the permanent vineyard are set with the expectation 

 of cutting out alternate vines when two or three crops have 

 been harvested and the vines begin to crowd. This practice is 

 preferable to interplanting with bush-fruits, yet there is not 

 much to commend it if the experience of those who have tried 

 it is taken as a guide. Too often the filler vines are left a year 

 too long with the result that the permanent vines are checked 

 in growth for several years following. The profits from the 

 fillers are never large, scarcely pay for the extra work, and if 

 the permanent vines are stunted, the filler must be put down 

 as a liability rather than as an asset. 



