PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUR. 221 



are set 10 feet apart, and three tiers of bail wire stretched from post to 

 post, by turns around strong nails. Wire is considered cheaper than slats. 

 The vines are tied with twigs of golden willow. This is quite dilTerent 

 from the Cincinnati method, which, briefly, is to plant thicker to tie to 

 single stakes, and to dwarf the vine. I saw very few grapes at Hermann, 

 tied or trained in this way. In fact, I do not find a similarity of treatment 

 in any two places I have visited. 



Adjoining this vineyard some two acres more were in preparation for 

 planting. To describe this is to tell how grape-growers generally through 

 our country perfer the work should be done. It is also the German and 

 French method. A likely negro was at work trenching. Commencing on 

 the lower, and throwing out the dirt on this side, a ditch two and a half feet 

 wide or more, or less, and two feet deep is dug across the future vineyard. 

 Where possible, Mr. Poeschel prefers to put brush, straw or rotten wood- 

 Bones would be very good in the bottom of this ditch. A similar space 

 next this ditch, is dug next; the dirt is thrown into the first one, with the 

 top soil at the bottom. Into the next vacancy more brush, &c., is thrown, 

 and in this manner the work proceeds till the whole piece is dug over, and 

 the work is finished. Dr. Shroeder, of Bloomington, who has three acres, 

 digs ditches 2 feet deep and 2| wide, leaving a space of 3 feet wide un- 

 dug. Mr. C. Fell of the same place, also Mr. Phoenix, and Mr. Coleman of 

 St. Louis, plow as deep as possible, and then come with a sub-soil plow and 

 four horses, and in all plow from 11 to 20 inches deep. Some at Cincin- 

 nati plow, particularly if the soil inclines to sand, but for the most part 

 they trench. At Hermann they have 500 acres in grapes, all of which 

 they have trenched. They will put in next spring 100 or 200 acres more. 

 The trenching, or plowing, is done in the fall, and the planting too if possi- 

 ble, but either may be done in the spring, if there is time. I asked tlie 

 negro what he thought of this kind of farming. He said, " Truck orter 

 grow powerful well, but his master wouldn't have no sich nonsense on his 

 plantation." Naturally, I asked him where he came from. He told me 

 he came from near Lexington, that he run away, and that at this work he 

 was making 15 cents a day and his board. 



To trench an acre of land as described, costs, when labor is moderately 

 plenty, $15, now it will cost $100. I took occasion to ask what would be 

 the result if the grapes are plajited on ordinary plowed ground. I was 

 invariably told that the vines would do well three or four years till their 

 roots came to hard ground, and then they would do nothing. Dr. Shroeder 

 showed three rows not touched in the midst of others that were trenched. 

 The first had made very poor growth, the last looked fine. This, then, 

 seems the condition for raising grapes; whether the ground be high or low, 

 it must be trenched, or sub-soiled at least. When the soil is very stiff and 

 has a sub-soil which will not let off the water, grapes ought not to be 

 planted, though pipe-drainage, thoroughly done, might make it suitable. 

 To all all this there is a limited but notable exception. I shall speak of it 

 in particular when I treat of grape-growing on the Ohio Lake Shore. 



To expend so much in preparing the ground for grapes will discourage 

 some. It is more than a farmer ever expects to get in any one year, or 



