ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 21 $ 



but, even with old vines, cultivation should be kept up as long 

 as possible. 



Cultivation should, too, be thorough and continued as long as 

 any weeds make their appearance, for all growth is at the ex- 

 pense of water. Grass or weeds, while making an earlier growth, 

 take up the water in your soil by their roots and evaporate it by 

 their leaves more rapidly than your vines, for they run through 

 to their maturity earlier, and many of them evaporate and use 

 more water. At any rate, whatever you allow them to appro- 

 priate from your soil is lost to the grape. 



The method of cultivation consists in plowing with a single 

 horse, beginning in the center between two rows of cuttings with 

 a back-furrow, and going backwards and forwards until all the 

 land is plowed up to the cuttings. This requires a careful hand, 

 or else many of the cuttings will be destroyed. If your land is 

 sandy and works easily, and free from clods, this will be all the 

 plowing that will be necessary, and all after-stirring of the soil 

 can be done with a cultivator, each time going the cross way 

 from the time previous. This will level your ground, and by fol- 

 lowing it up once a month until July, and again, say in the mid- 

 dle of August, will keep the cuttings growing vigorously, keep 

 your ground moist with even ten inches of rainfall during the 

 winter (and irrigation would be of no benefit), and keep your 

 ground free of weeds and looking like a garden. The kind of 

 cultivation is of but little importance ; the most simple, durable 

 and cheapest will be the best, for your ground will be in easy 

 condition for working. Stirring the soil in this way, breaking 

 the crust which forms (a condition favorable for evaporation ), 

 destroying the weeds while they are small, and keeping the land 

 level are the things you wish to accomplish. 



WILL IT PAY TO RAISE ROOTED VINES? 



This depends upon various conditions. If it is found that 

 the season is a very dry one, then planting cuttings in vineyard 

 form will be attended by much loss, a large percentage not 

 growing without irrigation, whereas, if in nursery, they can be 

 better cared for and watered, even by hauling water from a dis- 

 tance. Again, if rooted vines be planted, even in a very dry 

 season, they will start and grow if such cultivation is practiced 

 as here described. Again, parties not being fully ready with 

 their land to plant this year, could root their vines in nursery 

 and be ready for next year, for any season that might come, and 

 gain, say six months in growth, for a rooted vine will make a 

 larger growth than a cutting, although it will not be equal in 

 size to the vine planted in place at once of the same age. 



HOW TO PLANT THE CUTTINGS. 



This is usually done by making a hole with a crowbar the 



