/4 



Wifen speed and economy are to be consulted, two men and a cmid 

 ten or twelve years of age, are necessary. One lays bare the stocks 

 with a hoe to the depth of sixteen inches, and cleans them sufficiently 

 of the earth around for the ingrafter to work at his ease. One of the 

 workmen saws the stems about six or seven inches below the level 

 of the ground ; while he is thus employed on the first row, the ingraft- 

 er shapes his grafts and arranges them, as fast as he fixes them, in aba- 

 sin, in which there is enough of water to cover entirely the wedges or 

 inserting-points of the grafts ; these points must be three or four inches 

 long, and as slender as possible. The sloping of these wedges, in 

 other words their trimming, should commence immediately below the 

 joint or knot by which the two-year-old wood is attached to the year- 

 ling wood. 



The first row being dug down and sawed, the ingrafter, with a 

 very sharp grafting-tool smoothes the sawed part of the root, makes 

 the slit, and inserts one, two, or three grafts, according to the strength 

 of the root, and in such a way as to make the separations between 

 the grafts as small as possible. It is even more easy and certain not 

 to insert the third graft until after the ligature has been put on. The 

 ingrafter is followed by the child who hands him the knife, the grafts, 

 or the strings, or osier, as they are wanted. The child carries also a 

 basket filled with short mould. The ligature being tied, the ingrafter 

 lays on a good handful of the mould from the basket, and fills the hole 

 up with the loose earth around, leaving only two eyes of each graft 

 above ground. After this, there are no precautions necessary save 

 not to derange the ^grafts during the tillage necessary in the vine- 

 yard. Women should not be allowed to enter it, lest their clothes' 

 might brush the loosely fastened scions. The tillage should not be 

 very deep ; nothing more need be done than simply to clear away the 

 weeds by slightly raking the ground. In striving to do more there is 

 a danger of disturbing the new roots that are iorming and shooting 

 from the grafts at their insertion. 



An expert ingrafter may operate on two hundred Vine roots and 

 more, in the course of a day. In many districts, the Bordelais espe- 

 cially, the workman is paid three francs the hundred for all that take. 



Vegetation is not very obvious upon them until the month of July ; 

 but then the shoots sprout with a surprising rapidity; and if the 

 eyes above ground were really good bude^ they will bear grapes which 

 will be ripe in time for the vintage. Large props should not be pirt 

 down beside the grafts the first j'ear. The purchase they give to the 

 wind causes a shaking of the ground, that puts back the roots. Slen- 

 der wands a yard long are quite sufficient for props. If the shoots 



