THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 181 



" "When a vine is to be first established on any spot 

 where none grew before, the first thing is to prepare the 

 ground for planting. In steep places, -where the soil 

 migh'' be carried away by rains in winter, or spring, ter- 

 races are formed by building massive stone walls along 

 the slope, and levelling the soil behind them. The walls 

 serve to reflect the heat, and form a shelter to the vine 

 below. Thus a whole hill is sometimes covered with ter- 

 races from top to bottom, and there the wine is general- 

 ly good, if the exposure is favorable. Limestone, gravel, 

 or coarse sand, with a small mixture of clay, forms a 

 good soil for a vine ; vegetable substances alone should 

 be used to enrich it, such as the leaves and tendrils of 

 the vine, the residue of the grape when pressed, and, 

 failing these, the leaves of trees collected when green 

 and formed into a compost with earth. The ground 

 should be well trenched, if it will admit of it, or loosen- 

 ed with the mattock and pickaxe. The different parts of 

 the soil should be intimately mixed, keeping some fine 

 soil at top to set the plants in. When the ground is pre- 

 jjared, holes are dug in rows four or five feet wide, at the 

 same distance from each other, so as to alternate ; some 

 of the finest of the soil is put into each hole, and the 

 vine plants, which have been rooted in a nursery, or else 

 simple cuttings, are carefully inserted, piressing the 

 mould round the roots, and levelling the earth. Eooted 

 plants will bear the second or third year, but cuttings 

 take a much longer time. The usual instrument of til- 

 lage in stony and rocky soils is a two-pronged fork fixed 

 in a short handle, at an angle less than a right angle with 

 the prongs, which are a fuot long, and very strong, like 



