60 



VINEYARDS. 



crop. In fact the winter of 1860-1, showing a temper- 

 ature of 22° below zero on the 8th day of February, 

 killed all the wood which stood above the snow line on 

 that day. This might not have happened, and probably 

 would not, if the wood had been well ripened in the 

 autumn previous. The autumn of 1860 was very wet, 

 and slightly cooler than the average of seasons, and the 

 foliage of grape vines and even apple trees was killed 

 by a severe freeze on the 1st day of October, while still 

 green and growing. Vines planted in the way I have 

 described, can be easily laid down at a cost of not more 

 than one day's labor of a man and a boy for an acre, 

 which is a very cheap insurance, considering the risk of 

 so valuable a crop. My vines are planted on the east 

 side of the trellis, a foot from it, and are trained in a 

 slanting direction to the lower wire. Above that point 

 they are carried up on the west side of the trellis, so 

 that when pruned, and the ties cut, they fall toward the 

 ground on the west side by their own weight. A boy 

 can hold them down, while a man throws three or four 

 shovelfuls of soil upon them to hold, them in place. 



Although I have entered and described the vines 

 trained to a single trellis, yet it is in most respects like 

 fifteen others in the same vineyard, except that about 

 one half of them are one year behind in the time of 

 planting the vines. A portion of it was originally 

 planted for other and different modes of training, all of 

 which 1 became convinced must fail in the end. I 

 therefore replanted with ' young vines, rather than 

 attempt to retrain the old ones, and removed the latter 

 last autumn to give way to the former. In so doing, I 

 sacrificed the prospect of a crop of some tons of grapes 

 this year, feeling that the end justified the means, and 



