Manual of American Grape-Growing. U. P. Hedrick
Fitting the land.
Preparatory cultivation should begin the spring preceding planting by deep plowing. If the land has been used long for general farming so that a hard plow-sole has been formed by years of shallow plowing, a subsoil-plow should follow in the furrow of the surface plow, although it is seldom advisable to go deeply into the true hardpan. Fitting the land must not stop here but should continue through the summer with harrow and cultivator to pulverize the soil almost to its ultimate particles. Such cultivation can be sufficiently thorough, and be made at the same time profitable, by growing some hoed crop which requires intensive culture. If the soil lacks humus, a cover-crop of clover or other legume might well be sown in early summer to be plowed under in late fall. Or, if stable manure is available, this generally should be applied the fall before planting. Stable manure applied at this time to a soil inclined to be niggardly puts an atmosphere in the forthcoming vineyard wholly denied the grower who must rely on commercial fertilizers.
The land should be plowed again, deeply and as early in the fall as possible, harrowed thoroughly, or possibly cross-plowed and then harrowed. The land must go into the winter ready for early spring planting and the fall work must be done promptly and with a sturdy team and sharp, bright tools. The grower must keep in mind that no opportunity will offer during the life of the vineyard to even up for slackness in the start and that a vineyard of dingy, unhappy vines may be the result of neglect at this critical time. Good tilth should proceed until the earth is fairly animated with growth when the vines are planted. Plate II shows a piece of land well fitted for planting.
Marking for planting.
Given level land, a well-made marker, a gentle team and a careful driver with a surveyor's eye, and a vineyard may be marked for planting with a sled-marker, a modified corn-marker or even a plow. Some such marker method is commonest in use in laying out vineyard rows, but it is patent to the eye of every passer-by in grape regions that the commonest method is not the best to secure perfect alignment of row and vine. The combination named for good work with any of the marker methods is found too seldom. If the marker method is used, it is put in practice as follows: The rows being marked at the distance decided on, a deep furrow is plowed along the row by going both ways with the plow; this done, small stakes are set in the furrow at the proper distances for the vines, taking care to line them both ways. Planting holes are thus dug in the furrow with the stakes as a center.
Marking by means of a measuring wire or chain is the best method of locating vines accurately in a vineyard. The measuring wire varies according to the wishes of the user from two to three hundred feet or may be even longer. The best wires are made of annealed steel wire about an eighth of an inch in diameter. At each end of the wire is a strong iron ring to be slipped over stakes. The wire is marked throughout its length by patches of solder at the distances desired between rows of vines; to make these places more easily seen, pieces of red cloth are fastened to them. Sometimes this measuring wire is made of several strands of small wire, giving more flexibility and making marking easier, since by separating the strands at the desired points, pieces of cloth may be tied to mark distances.
In using the wire, the side of the vineyard which is to serve as the base of the square is selected and the wire is stretched, leaving at least one rod from road or fence for a headland. With the wire thus stretched, a stake is placed at each of the distance tags to represent the first row of vines. Beginning at the starting point, sixty feet are measured off in the base line and a temporary stake is set; eighty feet at a right angle with the first line are then measured off at the corner stake, judging the angle with the eye; then run diagonally from the eighty-foot stake to the sixty-foot stake. If the distance between the two stakes is one hundred feet, the corner is a right angle. With the base lines thus started at right angles to each other, one can measure off with the measuring wire as large an area as he desires by taking care to have the line each time drawn parallel with the last, and the stakes accurately placed at the marking points on the wire.
Still another method which may be put to good use in laying out a vineyard, especially if the vineyard is small, is to combine measure and sight. The distances about the vineyard are measured and stakes set to mark the ends of the rows around the area. Good stakes can be made from laths pointed at one end and whitewashed at the other. A line of stakes is then set across the field each way through the center, in places, of course, which the two central rows of vines will fill. When these are in place, if the area is not too large or too hilly, all measurements can be dispensed with and the vines can be set by sighting. A man at the end of the row has three laths to sight by in each row and a second man should drive stakes as directed by the sighter. Accurate work can be done by this method, but it requires time, a good eye and much patience in the man who is sighting.
Selecting and Preparing the Vines
Young grape vines covet life, for they are usually vigorous and not easily injured. Hence, the plants may be brought from a distance without fear of loss. The local nurseryman is, however, a good adviser as to varieties if he is honest and intelligent, and, other things equal, he should be patronized. But if the grower's needs cannot be met at home, he should not hesitate to seek a nurseryman at a distance. This is more necessary with the grape than other fruits because young grapes are well and cheaply grown in certain localities only. With the grape, as with all fruit plants, it is much better to buy from the grower than from tree peddlers.
Selecting vines.
Unless the buyer knows what he wants, selecting vines is gambling pure and simple. Fortunately, there are several marks of good vines very helpful to those who know them. One should first make sure that the roots and tops are alive to the remotest parts. The vines should have a good clean, healthy look with trunk diameter large enough to indicate vigorous growth, and an ample spread of roots. Large size is not as desirable as firm, well-matured wood and an abundance of roots. Vines with internodes of medium length for the variety are better than those with great length or very short internodes. Such precautions as are possible should be taken to insure varieties true to name, although here the reputation of the nurseryman must be depended on except for the few varieties which may be known at sight in the nursery.
First-grade one-year-old vines are usually better than two-year-olds. Stunted vines are not worth planting and two-year-old vines are often stunted one-year-olds. A few weak-growing varieties gain in vigor if allowed to remain in the nursery two years—three years, never.
Handling and preparing the vines.
The better vines are packed, transported and cared for in the field, the quicker will the roots take hold and the vines make the vigorous start on which so much depends. The nurseryman should be requested not to prune much before packing and to pack the vines well for shipping. The vines should be heeled-in as soon as they reach their destination. If the vines are dry on arrival, they should be drenched well before heeling-in. It sometimes happens that the vines are shriveled and shrunken from excessive drying, in which case the plants often may be brought back to plumpness by burying them root and branch in damp earth, to remain a week or possibly two. To heel-in, a trench should be double furrowed in light, moist soil, the vines spread out in the trench two or three deep, and then earth shoveled over the roots and half the tops, sifting it in the roots, after which the soil is firmed. The vines may thus be kept in good condition for several weeks if need arises.
The vines are prepared for planting by cutting away all dead or injured roots and shortening-in the healthy roots. Grape roots can be cut severely if healthy stubs remain, the removal of small roots and fibers doing no harm, since fibers are of value only as indicating that the vine is strong and vigorous. Fresh fibers come quickly from stout, healthy roots. Most of the fibers of a transplanted vine die, and laying them out in the hole to preserve them, as is so often recommended, is but a useless burial rite. On good healthy vines, the stubs of the roots, when cut back, will be four to eight inches in length. The root system having been considerably pruned, the