26 AMERICAN GRAPE CULTURE. 



the roots of plants to work in: but among 

 its most important results is the protection it 

 affords against the ill effects of sudden changes 

 of the weather, drought and wetness, heat and 

 cold, etc. 



Subsoiling will next be described. This, for 

 the vineyard, is the least thorough of the three 

 methods named. It is but little, if any, less 

 costly than trench plowing, and should not, 

 therefore, except for very good reasons, super- 

 sede it. The process of subsoiling is very simi- 

 lar to that of trench plowing. Two plows 

 are used, the common plow and the subsoil 

 plow, which is simply a foot-piece in some 

 wedge-shaped form, attached to a narrow up- 

 right shank. Of subsoil plows, there are 

 only two or three in use, either of which will 

 answer the purpose well enough if the furrow 

 slices are made narrow. Mapes's has the light- 

 est draught. In subsoiling, the furrow is open- 

 ed with the common plow; the subsoil plow 

 follows in the same furrow, and should be run 

 up to the beam to make good work. The lot 

 may be plowed round or in lands; sloping 

 ground, however, should be plowed up and 

 down the slope when the soil is at all heavy ; 



