CHAPTER IX. 



ON THE MEANS OF RENEWING VINES AND VINEYARDS. 



The proper methods for renewing the Vine are layering ; intrench- 

 ing ; stripping the old bark, and pruning. Of the latter we shall treat 

 in a chapter by itself. 



Of Layering. 



Layering creates new stocks ; but if too often repeated on the same 

 roots it eventually renders them sterile and useless. The process 

 of layering need scarcely be described it is so universally known. 

 But its application to the Vine consists in putting down and burying 

 an old- wood stem in a pit about a foot large, allowing only five or six 

 of the branches, (if weak, and if strong, but two) to remain above 

 ground. This is not only a mode of restoring Vines, but the way 

 usually practised for perpetuating good roots of the grape, such for 

 example as bear long bunches, with a double row of close-set ber- 

 ries, flattened by their pressure against each other. The time for 

 the operation varies according to the climate. In warm countries 

 the fall is best ; if done later it does not succeed well, the months 

 of April and May being, in such climates, altogether wanting in 

 those mild rains that so happily foster the young layer. In cold coun- 

 tries it must be deferred until the 15th of February. There, by layer- 

 ing in fall, the heavy winter rains, and surface water and moisture, 

 chill and weaken the sucker ; but even there by delaying the opera- 

 tion tiU spring, it disturbs the main direction and impulse of the 

 sap, and drives it into all the buds, when the grand object is to keep 

 it for a few. But in mid-February, there is no diversion made to 

 the flow of the sap, the channels of which are unoccupied. 



The sucker, when removed from the old stem, is to be pruned with 

 a cut slanting backward and downward from above the eye that is 

 kept, and ending opposite to it. When set out it should show only 

 three or four joints, and be provided with a prop to prevent it from 

 giving straggling, slender shoots, which would suffer from the plough 

 in the first tillage. Great care must be taken not to let the earth fill 

 up the trench in which the layers are set out, or the best roots will 



