1 62 Vineyard Culture, 



M. Simon, manufacturer of agricultural implements, 

 at Savigny, near Beaune (Cote d'Or), has invented a 

 stake-driver, which bears some analogy to the preceding. 

 It consists of a vertical iron rod [Fig. 66], eighteen 

 inches in length. This rod has, at its upper end, a 

 wooden handle, five inches long, and at its base, two 

 pieces of iron. A, having teeth like a saw, by means of 

 which the stake is held fast. The lowest part is 

 curved, forming a kind of stirrup about three inches 

 long. The working of this instrument is the same as 

 that of the preceding. 



[Our vine-dressers would not like to depend upon setting 

 their stakes by means of any such apparatus, nor would this 

 kind of labor be at all attractive to them. They would 

 greatly prefer the plan adopted by themselves, which consists 

 in the use of a stout crow-bar thrust into the soft ground, as 

 soon as it has settled from the frosts of winter. With this 

 tool, they work holes for the stakes, which are duly pointed, 

 and thrust into them as far as they will go ; they are after- 

 ward driven home, with a wooden maul or beetle. 



During some winters, the freezing and thawing of the sur- 

 face causes the stakes to rise and become loose ; in this case, 

 it is necessary to drive them early in the spring. The work- 

 man generally carries a high stbol, upon which to stand 

 while using the maul to drive the stakes.] 



In almost all regions where they are used, the stakes 

 are removed ftom the ground every year before winter, 

 and laid here and there in little heaps, kept up from the 

 ground by cross-stakes, as shown in Figure 67. Else- 

 where, in Champagne, for instance, these stakes are put 

 up in stacks, as may be seen in Figure 68. This re- 

 moval of the stakes is to prevent the buried ends from 



