TILLAGE OR WORKING OP VINEYARDS. 295 



breaking them and of injuring the fruit '. two ploughings 

 would in such case be advantageous, one in the fall and the other 

 early in the spring before vegetation commences, and the dig- 

 ging should take place at as late a period as will answer, say 

 the middle or latter part of August. I would recommend 

 however that in adopting any species of arrangement and cul- 

 ture for a vineyard, such course be pursued as will allow of 

 several summer dressings without difficulty, as I think their 

 advantages too great to be passed over for the attainment of 

 any other object. 



Deep tillage is particularly required in loam and clay soils, 

 in order to render them mellow and permeable. Vines attain 

 sooner to perfection in light soils than in stiff ones, but their 

 duration is longer in the latter. 



In vineyards on hills and declivities, it is proper in working 

 them to throw up the earth as much as possible, instead of dig- 

 ging it down as is often done. It is true, the labourer has a 

 more difficult task, but by this course the upper part of a vine- 

 yard will not be stripped of its soil. Some proprietors in order 

 to carry the advantage as far as possible, considering both 

 circumstances, have the ground worked diagonally, a course 

 which must be approved of. When the first working or 

 digging of a vineyard is done from east to west, the next 

 should be from west to east, or according to this rule in what- 

 ever direction it may be. The two or three latter cleanings 

 of the vineyard are called weedings, and are in general done 

 with the hoe, to destroy the weeds which have accumulated, 

 and which would extract the richness of the soil, injure the 

 ripening of the fruit, and favour the influence of frosts. It 

 is asserted by many writers, that summer culture of light soils 

 causes the evaporation of moisture, and renders the soil more 

 dry. In my experience, I have found the result directly the 

 reverse. By digging a dry soil in a drought, the quantity 

 of moisture seems to be increased, for the fertility is greater, 

 and the plants flourish more than when it is omitted. 



In many vineyards, especially those of Orleans, the earth 

 is made more elevated in the line containing the vines than in 



