Rooting Cuttings. 287 
lower level in the light, warm loams of the interior valleys than 
in any other soil or, situation, and longer cuttings are used in 
the interior than in the coast regions. The usual length of cut- 
tings is from eighteen to twenty inches. 
Making and Caring for Cuttings—Cuttings can be taken 
from the vines at any time after the fall of the leaf and before 
the spring flow cf sap begins, The earlier cuttings—those 
taken before January—are more likely to make a successful start 
and after-growth than those cut later in the season. 
It is common, however, to defer preparation of cuttings till 
the pruning is done, be it early or late, and this will generally 
answer the purpose, if care be taken to secure the cuttings im- 
mediately at the pruning; but if the branches be allowed to lie 
upon the ground for days, exposed to sun, wind, or frost, before 
the cuttings are secured, their chances of growth are seriously 
lessened, and a good part of the failures in planting are due to 
such cuttings. 
Cuttings should be taken from short-jointed, well-ripened 
wood of the previous year’s growth, cut squarely and smoothly 
just below a bud. Cuttings from the middle or top end of 
branches are not so likely to root, nor to grow so vigorously, as 
those from the butts or ends nearest the old wood. 
Keep them dormant until the time comes to set them in 
the vineyard, else the tender shoots may get broken. To keep 
them back, place them, at the pruning, in shallow trenches, top 
down, on the north side of a close board fence or a building, 
cover the butts with ioose earth, and over that throw some straw 
and boards. Take care that the trenches are in moist but not 
wet ground, as too much moisture rots the cuttings. If the 
ground should not be moist enough, or if the cuttings seem 
dry or withered, plunge them in water to within three or four 
inches of their top, for a few days before setting, and do not let 
them dry again before planting. 
Rooting Cuttings in Nursery.—What has been written is in 
reference to cuttings designed for placing in permanent posi- 
tion in the vineyard, but, tor the most part, applies as well to 
the preparation of cuttings for the nursery. For nursery treat- 
ment, however, shorter cuttings can be used than for field plant- 
ing, because of the better cultivation and more generous mois- 
ture conditions which are usually provided. 
In preparation of ground for the rooting of vines and the 
planting of cuttings therein, the suggestions in Chapter VIII 
are directly applicable, as, to secure rooting of the cuttings, there 
is just as great need for deep and fine working of the soil, press- 
ing of it around the cutting, and for careful culture during the 
growing season, as there is for such treatment of fruit-tree seed- 
ling or root graft. It is just as necessary, too, that the rooted 
cuttings should be carefully lifted and guarded from drying out 
