TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



79 



inches from the surface of the ground. Xow, I would like to know if 

 that is too high or too low ? 



PROF. PIERCE. Well, you can establish a habit of growth to suit 

 yourself. If you keep your ground dry you will have a deep-rooted 

 vine ; but if the vine has a root system well established close to the sur- 

 face, to lower the water-table so that you have a space of dry ground 

 beneath the roots is injurious, and you are liable to lose the leaves, and 

 in some cases the vine, from that cause. 



MR. KNOX. About the first of March the Avater was up to within 

 about thirty inches of the surface of the ground, then it began to lower, 

 and in the first part of August it was down four feet : the first part of 

 September it was down six feet, and at present it is nearly twelve feet. 



PROF. PIERCE. Yes, sir; and I think that is what injured your 

 vineyards. 



MR. KNOX. Wouldn't it be much better if there could be installed 

 a system of drainage that would keep the water-level down to about five 

 or six feet? 



PROF. PIERCE. I think so, decidedly, provided your vines were 

 established that way in the first place; but to make a change you lower 

 the water-table more rapidly than the vine can follow it, and when you 

 do that your vine dries out and it is l)ound to have a weakening influ- 

 ence. Transpiration will cease and the leaves will fall. 



MR. KXOX. Isn't it the trouble right now, that we have the high 

 ground water at a certain time of year and then the ground water drops 

 just when the vines need that moisture? 



PROF. PIERCE. Well, you are under a system of irrigation, and 

 that should be controlled in such manner as to keep the water within 

 reach of the vines. You used to maintain the water level very high 

 here, and I thought it would be a better thing for the vines if the 

 ground water could be kept down to about five feet. Whether the roots 

 of your vines would go down to that depth depends on whether you 

 lower the water too fast. If you do, they couldn't follow. If you keep 

 it so as to gradually lead those roots down you will have a different root 

 system in time, but the trouble is to do that. 



MR. FIDEL. I should like to ask the Professor if he ever noted an 

 improvement in the condition of vines which have suffered from this 

 disease ? 



PROF. PIERCE. Oh, yes. It is a common thing for vines to be 

 stripped of leaves in the fall and to come out again apparently fresh in 

 the spring. 



MR. FIDEL. We have had vines affected for a year or two, and 

 some seemed to die rather suddenly and some seemed to keep on grow- 

 ing, in a half-hearted way, but they do not die. 



PROF. PIERCE. Where are you from ? 



