246 Vineyard Culture. 



surface, successively — beginning here and there, with the 

 most exhausted plants, and continuing the process from 

 year to year. The product of the old plants thus serves 

 to conceal, in part, the inferior quality of wine yielded 

 by the new ones. In Burgundy, about one-twentieth 

 of all the plants is thus renewed every year. 



From what precedes, it is seen that the renewal of 

 the plants is oftener carried into effect in a progressive 

 manner than effected all at once, over the whole sur- 

 face. Be this as it may, the renewal of the plants may 

 be effected by means of the four following operations : 



Provinage. — This operation consists in selecting the 

 stock nearest the point where we wish to replace one or 

 more vines by new plants. Care is taken that this stock 

 be vigorous, and provided with two or three fine shoots. 

 A trench is then dug, which, beginning at the foot of 

 the stock, shall take the direction of the point or points 

 to be occupied by the new plants. The width of this 

 trench is about twenty inches, and its depth varies 

 between twelve and sixteen inches, according as the 

 soil is more or less exposed to drought. At the bottom 

 of the trench, spread a layer of compost, about one-and- 

 a-quarter inch in thickness, and the stock, trimmed so 

 that the number of shoots shall be equal to that of the 

 new plants needed, is then laid flat in the bottom of 

 the ditch, and the shoots are placed in the direction of 

 the points where the new plants are to be. One of 

 these shoots [Fig. 96] should be brought back to the 

 point occupied by the parent stock, in order to replace 

 the latter. Figure 96 shows a stock thus laid down in 

 a trench. This work accomplished, and the stock and 

 shoots held in position by means of forks, the trench is 



