THE VINEYARD AND ITS MANAGEMENT
A vineyard is more artificial than other plantations of fruits, since
the vine requires greater discipline under cultivation than tree or
bush. Yet greater art is required only when the attempt is made to
grow the grape to perfection, for the vine bears fruit if left to
indulge in riotous growth wheresoever it can strike root. Vineyard
management, therefore, may represent the consummate art of three
thousand or more years of cultural subserviency; or it may be so
primeval in simplicity as to approach neglect. The grape is so
wonderfully responsive to good care, however, that no true lover of
fruit will profane it with neglect, but will seek, rather, to give it
a favorable situation, its choice of soils and such generous care as
will insure strong, vigorous, productive vineyards of choicely good
fruit.
Grape-growing is a specialists' business, for the culture of the grape
is unlike that of any other fruit. The essentials of vineyard
management, however, are easily learned. Indeed, care of the vine
comes almost instinctively; for the grape has been cultivated since
prehistoric times and the races of the world are so familiar with it
through sacred literatures, myths, fables, stories and poetry, that
its care is prompted by natural impulse. The grape has followed
civilized man so closely from place to place through the temperate
climates of the world, that rules and methods of culture have been
developed for almost every condition under which it will grow, so that
every grape-grower may profit by the successes and failures of the
generations that preceded him. Grape-growing is not, however, an art
wholly governed by rules of the past to be carried on by common
laborers who use hands only, but is one in which its followers may
make use of science and may put thought, skill and taste into their
work.
LAYING OUT THE VINEYARD
Vineyards are laid out for the most part after accepted patterns for
each of the great grape regions of America. The vines are always
planted in rectangles, usually at a less distance apart in the rows
than the rows are from each other, but sometimes in squares. Pride in
appearance and convenience in vineyard operations make perfect
alignment imperative. Many varieties of grapes, especially of American
species, are partially self-sterile, so that some varieties must have
others interplanted with them for cross-pollination. This is usually
done by setting alternate rows of the variety to be pollinated and the
cross-pollinator. All self-fertile varieties are set in solid blocks
because of convenience in harvesting.
_Direction of rows._
Some grape-growers attach considerable importance to the direction in
which rows run, holding either that the full blaze of the sun at
mid-day is desirable for vine, soil and fruit, or that it is
detrimental. Those who desire to provide fullest exposure to the sun
plant rows east and west when the distance between vines is less than
the distance between rows; north and south when vines are farther
apart in the row than the rows are from each other. When shade seems
more desirable, these directions are reversed. Most often, however,
the rows are laid out in accordance with the shape of the vineyard;
or, if the land is hilly, the rows follow the contour of the
declivities to prevent soil erosion by heavy rains.
_Alleys._
For convenience in vineyard operations, especially spraying and
harvesting, there should always be alleys through a vineyard. On hilly
lands, the alleys are located to secure ease in hauling; on level
lands they are usually arranged to cut the vineyards into blocks twice
as long as wide. An alley is usually made by leaving out a row of
vines. Many vineyards are laid out with rows far enough apart so that
alleys are not needed.
_Distances between rows and plants._
There are great variations in the distances between rows and plants in
different regions, and distances vary somewhat in any one region.
Distances are influenced by the following considerations: Rich soils
and large vigorous varieties require greater distances than poor soils
and less vigorous varieties; sometimes, however, it is necessary to
crowd a variety in the vineyard so that by reducing its vigor
fruitfulness may be promoted. Usually the warmer the climate, or the
exposure, the greater should be the distance between vines. Very often
the topography of the land dictates planting distances. But while
taking in account the preceding considerations, which rightly suggest
the distances between plants in the row, convenience in vineyard
operations is the factor that most often fixes the distance between
rows. The rows must be far enough apart in commercial vineyards to
permit the use of two horses in plowing, spraying and harvesting.
Planted in squares, the distance varies from seven feet in garden
culture to nine feet in commercial vineyards for eastern America. More
often, however, the rows are eight or nine feet apart, with the vines
six, seven or eight and in the South ten or twelve feet apart in the
rows. Planting distances are less, as a rule, on the Pacific slope
than in eastern regions; that is, the distances between the rows are
the same, to permit work with teams, but the distance between plants
in the rows is less, sometimes being no greater than three and a half
or four feet. The rank-growing Rotundifolias of the southern states
need much room, nine by sixteen feet being none too much. Sunshine
must govern the distance apart somewhat. Grapes picked in the pleached
alleys of closely set vineyards of the North and East are few, small
and poor; farther south, shade from the vines may be a requisite for a
good crop.
The number of vines to the acre must be determined before growing or
buying plants. This is done by multiplying the distance in feet
between the rows by the distance the plants are apart in the row, and
dividing 43,560, the number of square feet in an acre, by the product.
PREPARATION FOR PLANTING
It is impossible to put too much emphasis on the necessity of thorough
preparation of the land before planting the grape. Extra expenditure
to secure good tilth is amply repaid by increased growth in the grape,
and all subsequent care may fail to start the vines in vigorous growth
if the land is not in good tilth preparatory to planting. The vineyard
is to stand a generation or more, and its soil is virtually immortal,
two facts to suggest perfect preparation. The land should be
thoroughly well plowed, harrowed, mixed and smoothed. The better this
work is done, the greater the potentialities of the vineyard. Here,
indeed, is a time to be mindful of the adage which comes from Cato, a
sturdy old Roman grape-grower of 2000 years ago: "The face of the
master is good for the land."
Preparation is a series of operations in which it is wise to take
advantage of time and begin a year before the vines are to be set. The
land must be put in training to fit it for the long service it is to
render. The two great essentials of preparation are provision for
drainage and thorough cultivation. Both, to be performed as the
well-being of the grape require, take time, and a year is none too
short a period in which to do the work. Moreover, newly drained and
deeply plowed land requires time for frost, air, sunshine and rain to
sweeten and enliven the soil after the mixture by these operations of
live topsoil with inert subsoil.
_Drainage._
The ideal soil, as we are often told, resembles a sponge, and is
capable of retaining the greatest possible amount of plant-food
dissolved in water, and at the same time is permeable for air. This
ideal, sponge-like condition is particularly desirable for the grape,
especially native species, because the vines of all are exceedingly
deep-rooted. Moreover, grapes thrive best in a warm soil. While,
therefore, the roots may make good use of nutritious solutions, if not
too diluted, in an undrained soil, they suffocate and do not receive
sufficient bottom heat. It must be made emphatic that the grape will
not thrive in water-logged land.
Unless the land is naturally well drained, under-drainage must be
provided as the first step in the preparation of land for the
vineyard. Tile-draining is usually best done by those who make
land-draining their business, but information as to every requirement
of land and detail of work may be secured from many texts, so that
grape-growers may perform the work for themselves. In concluding the
topic, the reader must be reminded that high and hill lands are not
necessarily well drained, and low lands are not necessarily wet even
if the surface is level. Often hilltops and hillsides need artificial
draining; much less often valley lands and level lands may not need
it. To assume, too, that gravelly and shaley soils are always well
drained often leads directly contrary to the truth. Sandy and gravelly
soils need drainage nearly as often as loamy and clayey ones.
Following tiling, if the land has had to be under-drained, the
vineyard should be graded to fill depressions and to make the surface
uniform. Usually this can be done with cutaway, tooth or some other
harrow, but sometimes the grader or road-scraper must be put in use.
_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
reciprocity between roots and tops must be taken into account and the
top pruned accordingly. To reduce the work of the leaves to harmonize
with the activities of the roots, the top should be pruned to a single
cane and two, never more than three, buds. The vine is now ready for
planting and, the soil being in readiness, planting should proceed
apace.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.--Black Hamburg (x1/2).]
PLANTING
The dangers and difficulties of planting hardwooded plants are greatly
exaggerated. The tyro, in particular, is impressed with his
responsibilities at this time, and often sends a hurry-up call to
experiment station or nurseryman to "send him a man to plant." If the
land is properly prepared and the plants in good condition, the
operation of planting is easily, quickly and safely accomplished.
There is no need, in planting the vine, of such puttering overniceties
as laying out the roots to preserve the fibers, watering each vine as
it is set, inserting the vine in a gingerly fashion to make sure that
it stands in its new abode as it stood in the old, or puddling the
roots in pail or tub of water. On the other hand, the slap-dash method
of a Stringfellow who cuts off all small roots and uses a crowbar in
place of a spade is not doing duty by the plant, and burying the roots
deep in the earth or covering them close to the surface is courting
failure.
_Digging the holes._
This is a simple task in land in good tilth. The holes need only be
large and deep enough to hold the roots without undue cramping. Herein
is again manifested the wisdom of thoroughly preparing the land; for,
in well-prepared land, the hole is really as large as the vineyard.
Even in the condition of poor tilth, deep holes are often a menace to
the life of the plant, especially if drainage is not provided, for the
deep hole becomes a tub into which water pours and stands to soak the
roots of dying vines. An extra spurt in digging holes cannot take the
place of perfect fitting of the land.
There is nothing to commend the practice of digging holes in a leisure
time that all may be ready when the time to plant arrives. The vines
will strike root best in the freshly turned, moist soil of newly dug
earth, which can be firmly set about the roots when the vine is
planted. Neither is time saved in digging beforehand, for the
sun-baked and rain-washed sides of holes long dug would surely have to
be pared afresh. It is, however, quite worth while to throw the
surface soil to one side and that lower to the other, that a spadeful
of moist, virile, surface soil may be put next to the roots.
There are, no doubt, some soils in which the holes might be blasted
out with dynamite, as, for instance, in a shallow soil with the
hardpan near the surface and good subsoil beneath. It is very
questionable, however, whether these defective soils should be used
for commercial plantings as long as there still remain unplanted many
acres in all grape regions of good deep land for the grape. To such as
are attracted by "dynamite farming," minute descriptions of methods of
use of dynamite and even demonstrations may be secured from
manufacturers of the explosive.
_Time to plant._
The best time to plant the vine in cold climates is early spring, when
sun and showers arouse the spirit of growth in plants, and nutritive
solutions proceed quickly and unerringly to their preappointed places.
At this time, the much mutilated vine can undertake best the double
task of making fresh roots and opening the dormant leaves. Fall
planting puts forward the work, thus diminishing the rush of early
spring when vineyard operations crowd, and, no doubt, when all is
favorable, enables the vines to start a little more quickly. However,
there are frequently serious losses from planting in the fall. In cold
winters the grip of frost is sufficient to wrench the young vine from
its place and sometimes all but heaves it out of the soil. There is,
also, great liability of winter-killing in vines transplanted in the
autumn, not because of greater tenderness of the plant, but because of
greater porosity of the loosened soil which enables the cold to strike
to a greater depth. These two objections to fall planting can be
overcome largely by mounding up the earth so as practically to cover
the vines, leveling the mound in early spring; but this extra work
more than offsets the labor saving in fall planting.
In climates in which the soil does not freeze in the winter, the vines
may be set in the autumn if all is favorable. Often, however,
conditions are not favorable to fall planting in warm climates, since
autumn rains frequently soak the soil so that it cannot be placed
properly about the roots; and, moreover, in a cold, water-logged soil
the inactive roots begin to decay; or the soil may be too dry for fall
planting. Under such conditions, it is often better to delay planting
in warm climates until spring when better soil conditions can be
secured. Fall or spring, the soil should be reasonably dry, warm and
mellow when the work is done. The best time to plant must necessarily
vary from year to year, and the vineyardist must decide exactly when
to undertake planting in accordance with the conditions of soil and
weather, mindful that the Psalmist's injunction that there is "a time
to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted" is subject to
several conditions requiring judgment. The grape puts out its leaves
late in the spring, making the temptation great to delay planting;
late-set plants, however, need special care lest they suffer from the
summer droughts which annually parch the lands of this continent.
_The operation of planting._
All being in readiness, planting proceeds rapidly. A gang of four men
work to advantage. Two dig holes, a third holds the vines and tramps
the earth as the remaining man shovels in earth. Except in large
vineyards, four men are seldom available, and gangs of two or three
must divide the work among its members as best suits conditions. A
tree-setting board is not needed in planting grapes, although some
growers use it. The man who holds the vines in the hole and tramps as
the shoveler fills, must align the plant after the stake is removed
and see that it stands perpendicularly in the hole. The stake, a lath,
is set in its old place in the hole to serve as a support for the
growing vine and to mark it so that the cultivator does not pull up
the young plant. The soil must be set firm about the roots of the
plant, but zeal in tramping should diminish as the hole is filled,
leaving the topsoil untramped, smooth, loose and pulverized, a dust
mulch--the best of all mulches--to prevent evaporation.
The depth to which vines should be set is a matter of controversy.
This should be governed by the soil more than by any other factor,
although some varieties need a deeper root-run than others. The rule
to plant to the depth the vine stood in the nursery row is safe under
most conditions, although in light, hungry or thirsty soils the roots
should go deeper; and, on the other hand, in heavy soils, not so deep.
Deep planting is a more common mistake than shallow planting, for
roots under most conditions stand exposure better than internment,
going down being more natural than coming up for a root seeking a
place to its liking.
Watering at planting is necessary only when the land is parched with
drought or in regions in which irrigation is practiced. When
necessary, water should be used liberally, at least a gallon or two to
a vine. After the earth has been firmed about the roots and the hole
is nearly filled, the water should be poured in and the hole filled
without more firming. Under dry weather conditions, some prefer to
puddle the roots; that is, to dip them in thin mud and plant with the
mud adhering. In making the puddle, loose loam and not sticky clay is
used, as clay may bake so hard as to injure the roots. With puddling,
as with watering, the surface soil should be left loose and soft
without traces of the puddling below.
Manure or fertilizer about the roots or even in the hole are not
necessary or even desirable. If the soil is to be enriched at all at
planting time, the fertilizer should be spread on the surface to be
cultivated in or to have its food elements leak down as rains fall. In
land in which the providential design for grapes is plainly
manifested, the vine at no time responds heartily to fertilizers, the
good of stable manure probably coming for the most part from its
effects on the texture and water-holding capacity of the soil. The
newly set plant is not in need of outside nourishment; to put rank
manure or strong commercial fertilizers about the roots of a young
newly set vine is plant infanticide.
CARE OF YOUNG VINES
Virgil calls the period in the life of the vine between the setting
and the first vintage, the "tender nonage," and tells us that at this
time the vines need careful rearing; so they do, now as then, American
grapes as well as the grapes of ancient Rome. Fortunately, any
departure from normal well-being is easily told in the grape, for the
color of the leaf is as accurate an index to the health and vigor of
the vine as the color of the tongue or the beat of the pulse in man. A
change of color from the luxuriant green of thrifty grape foliage,
especially the yellow hue indicating that the leaf-green is not
functioning properly, suggests that the vines are sick or need nursing
in some detail of care. When all goes well, however, the amazing
energy of Nature is nowhere better seen among plants than in the
growth of the grape, so that much of the care is in the use of the
knife; in fact, as we shall see, the grape almost lives by the knife
the first two years out.
_The first year._
The vines having been pruned and staked at planting, these operations
need no attention in the first summer. Many varieties send up several
shoots as growth starts, and, except in the case of grafted plants
and in the event of the suckers coming from the stock, these should be
left to feed the vine and help to establish a good root system. Vines
making a strong growth should be tied to the stake, at least the
strongest shoot, to keep the wind from whipping it about and to keep
the plants out of the way of the cultivator. The only knack in tying
is to keep the vine on the windward side of the stake, thus saving the
breaking of tying material.
The first year's pruning, though severe, is easily done. All but the
strongest cane are cut out and this is pruned back to two buds, nearly
to the ground, so that the vines are much as when set in the vineyard.
This pruning, and that of the next two years, has as the object the
establishment of a good root system and the production of a sturdy
trunk at the height at which the vine is to be headed. It is important
that the cane from which the trunk is to come be healthy and the wood
well ripened. Pruning may be done at any time after the leaves fall,
though most growers give preference to late winter. In cold climates
it is a good practice to plow up to the young vines for winter
protection, in which case the pruning should be done before plowing.
Every detail of vineyard management should be performed with care and
at the accepted time in this critical first year. Cultivation must be
intensive, insects and fungi must be warded off, mechanical injuries
avoided, vines that have refused to grow must be marked for discard,
and the vineyard be put down to a cover-crop in early August if it was
not earlier planted to some hoed catch-crop.
_The second year._
Work begins in the spring of the second year with the setting of
trellis posts on which one wire is put up. The vine is not yet ready
to train but the slender lath of the first season is not sufficient
support, and the one wire on the future trellis saves the expense of
staking. Tying requires some care and is usually done with string or
bast. As the summer proceeds, suckers from the roots are removed and
some growers thin the shoots on the young vine; some think it
necessary also to top the growth if it becomes too luxuriant and so
keep the cane within bounds. Suckers must be cut or broken off at the
points where they originate, otherwise several new ones may start from
the base of the old. If the vines are topped, it must be kept in mind
that summer pruning is weakening, and the tips of shoots should,
therefore, be taken when small, the object being to direct the growth
into those parts of the vine which are to become permanent.
Pruning, the second winter the vine is out, depends on the vigor of
the plant. If a strong, healthy, well-matured cane over-tops the lower
wire of the trellis, it should be cut back so that the cane may be
tied to the wire; otherwise the vine should again be cut almost to the
ground, leaving but three or four buds. If the cane be left, in
addition to sturdiness and maturity, it should be straight, for it is
to become the trunk of the mature vine. The training of the young vine
is now at an end, for the next season the vine must be started toward
its permanent form, instructions for which are given in the chapter on
pruning.
The summer care of the vineyard does not differ materially in the
second year from that of the first. Intensive cultivation continues,
the vines are treated for pests and the annual cover-crop follows
cultivation. Many varieties, if vigorous, will set some fruit in this
second summer, but the crop should not be allowed to mature, the
sooner removed the better, as fruiting at this stage of growth
seriously weakens the young vines.
CATCH-CROPS AND COVER-CROPS
A catch-crop is one grown between the rows of another crop for profit
from the produce. A cover-crop is a temporary crop grown, as the term
was first used, to protect the soil, but the word is now used to
include green-manuring crops as well. Catch-crops seldom have a place
in most vineyards, but cover-crops are often grown.
_Catch-crops._
Catch-crops are not, as a rule, profitable in commercial vineyards;
they may bring temporary profit but in the long run they are usually
detrimental to the vines. It may pay and the grape may not be injured
in some localities, if such truck crops as potatoes, beans, tomatoes
and cabbage are grown between the rows or even in the rows for the
first year and possibly the second. Land, to do duty by the two crops,
however, must be excellent and the care of both crops must be of the
best. Growing gooseberries, currants, any of the brambles, or even
strawberries, is a poor procedure unless the vineyard is small, the
land very valuable or other conditions prevail which make intensive
culture possible or necessary. The objections to catch-crops in the
vineyard are two: they rob the vines of food and moisture and endanger
them to injury from tools in caring for the catch-crop.
Sometimes the grape itself is planted as a catch-crop in the vineyard.
That is, twice the number of vines required in a row for the permanent
vineyard are set with the expectation of cutting out alternate vines
when two or three crops have been harvested and the vines begin to
crowd. This practice is preferable to inter-planting with bush-fruits,
yet there is not much to commend it if the experience of those who
have tried it is taken as a guide. Too often the filler vines are left
a year too long with the result that the permanent vines are checked
in growth for several years following. The profits from the fillers
are never large, scarcely pay for the extra work, and if the permanent
vines are stunted, the filler must be put down as a liability rather
than as an asset.
_Cover-crops._
In an experiment being conducted by the New York Agricultural
Experiment Station, grapes do not give a very appreciable response to
cover-crops in yield of fruit or growth of vine.[9] There seem to be
no other experiments to confirm the results at the New York Station,
and grape-growers nowhere have used cover-crops very generally for the
betterment of their vineyards. There is doubt, therefore, as to
whether grapes will respond profitably to the annual use of
cover-crops in yield of fruit, which, of course, is the ultimate test
of the value of cover-crops, but a test hard to apply unless the
experiment runs a great number of years.
Leaving out the doubtful value of cover-crops in increasing the supply
of plant-food and thereby producing an increase in yield, there are at
least three ways in which cover-crops are valuable in the vineyard.
Thus, it is patent to all who have tried cover-crops in the vineyard
that the land is in much better tilth and more easily worked when some
green crop is turned under in fall or spring; it is not unreasonable
to assume, though it is impossible to secure reliable experimental
data to confirm the belief, that cover-crops protect the roots of
grapes from winter-killing; certainly it may be expected that a
cover-crop sowed in midsummer will cause grapes to mature their wood
earlier and more thoroughly so that the vines go into the winter in
better condition. The only objection to be raised against cover-crops
in the vineyard is that pickers, mostly women, object to the
cover-crop when wet with rain or dew and usually choose to pick in
vineyards having no such crop. This seemingly insignificant factor
often gives the grape-grower who sows cover-crops much trouble in
harvest time.
Several cover-crops may be planted in vineyards as clover, vetch,
oats, barley, cow-horn turnip, rape, rye and buckwheat. Combinations
of these usually make the seed too costly or the trouble of sowing too
great. Yet some combinations of a leguminous and non-leguminous crop
would seem to make the best green crop for the grape. Thus, a bushel
of oats or barley plus ten pounds of clover or twenty pounds of winter
vetch, a combination often used in orchards, should prove satisfactory
in the vineyard. Or, doubling the amount of seed for each, these crops
could be alternated, with a change in the rotation every four or six
years, with cow-horn turnip or rape. Turnip and rape require at least
three pounds of seed to the acre.
The cover-crop is sown in midsummer, about the first of August in
northern latitudes, and should be plowed under in the fall or early
spring. Under no circumstances should the green crop be permitted to
stand in the vineyard late in the spring to rob the vines of food and
moisture. The weather map must be watched at sowing time to make sure
of a moist seed-bed. Plate III illustrates two vineyards with
well-grown cover-crops.
TILLAGE
Grape-growers are not in the fog that befuddles growers of tree-fruits
in regard to tillage. He is a sloven, indeed, who permits his vines to
stand a season in unbroken ground, and there are no growers who
recommend sod or any of the modified sod-mulches for the grape.
Tillage is difficult in hilly regions and the operation is often
neglected in hillside vineyards, as in the Central Lakes region of New
York, but even here some sort of tillage is universal. The skip of a
single season in tilling stunts the vines, and two or three skips in
successive seasons ruin a vineyard. No one complains that grapes
suffer from over-tilling as one frequently hears of tree-fruits. There
is no tonic for the grape that compares with cultivation when the
leaves lack color and hang limp and the vine has an indefinable air of
depression; and there is nothing better than cultivation to rouse
latent vigor in a scorching summer, or when drought lays heavy on the
land.
_Tillage tools._
The tools to be used in tilling grapes vary with the topography of the
vineyard, the kind of soil and the preferences of the vineyardist. The
best tool is the one with which the ground can be well fitted at least
expense. Good work in the vineyard requires at least two plows, a
single-horse and a two-horse plow. The latter, except on very hilly
land, should be a gang-plow. For commercial vineyards of any
considerable size, several cultivators are necessary for different
seasons and conditions of the soil. Thus, every vineyard should have a
spring-tooth and a disc harrow, one of the several types of weeders, a
one-horse and a sulky cultivator. If weeds abound, it is necessary to
have some cutting tool, or an attachment to one of the cultivators, to
slide over the ground and cut off large weeds. Another indispensable
tool in a large vineyard is a one-horse grape-hoe, to supplement the
work of which there must be heavy hand-hoes. Very often the surface
soil must be pulverized, and a clod-crusher, roller or a float becomes
a necessity. A full complement of bright, sharp tools at the command
of the grape-grower goes far toward success in his business.
_Tillage methods._
There are several reliable guides indicating when the vineyard needs
to be tilled. The vineyardist who is but a casual observer of the
relation of vineyard operations to the life events and the welfare of
his vines will take the crop of weeds as his guide. It is, of course,
necessary to keep down the weeds, but the man who waits until weeds
force him to till will make a poor showing in his vineyard. The
amount of moisture in the soil is a better guide. The chief function
of tillage is to save moisture by checking evaporation and to put the
soil in such condition that its water-holding capacity is increased.
The physical condition of the land is another guide. Tilling when the
soil needs pulverizing furnishes a greater feeding surface for the
roots.
Tillage begins with plowing in early spring. Whether provided with a
cover-crop to be turned under or hard and bare, the land must be
broken each spring with the plow. Plowing is best done by running a
single furrow with a one-horse plow up to or away from the vines as
occasion calls and then following with a two-horse or a gang-plow.
Some growers use a disc harrow instead of the plow to break the land
in the spring, but this is a doubtful procedure in most vineyards and
is impossible when a heavy green-crop covers the land. Tillage with
harrow, cultivator, weeder or roller then proceeds at such intervals
as conditions demand, seldom less than once a fortnight, until time to
sow the cover-crop in midsummer. About the time grapes blossom, the
grape-hoe should be used to level down the furrow turned up to the
vines in the spring plowing. Tillage should always follow a heavy rain
to prevent the formation of a soil crust, this being a time when he
who tills quickly tills twice. The number of times a vineyard should
be tilled depends on the soil and the season. Ten times over with the
cultivator in one vineyard or season may not be as effective as _five_
times in another vineyard or another season. In some regions, as in
New York, the grower is so often at the mercy of wet weather in early
spring that the plowing is best done in the fall, and spring
operations must then open with harrowing with some tool that will
break the land thoroughly.
The depth to till is governed by the nature of the soil and the
season. Heavy soils need deep tilling; light soils, shallow tilling;
in wet weather, till deeply; in dry weather, lightly. Grape roots are
well down in the soil and there is little danger of injuring them in
deep tillage. The depth of plowing and cultivating should be varied
somewhat from season to season to avoid the formation of a plow-sole.
In some regions plowing and cultivating may be made a means of
combating insects and fungi, and this regulates the depth of tillage.
Thus, in the Chautauqua grape-belt of western New York, the pupa of
the root-worm, a scourge of the grape in this region, is thrown out
and destroyed by the grape-hoe just as it is about ready to emerge as
an adult to lay its eggs on the vines. In all regions, leaves and
mummied grapes bearing countless myriads of spores of the mildews,
black-rot and other fungi are interned by the plow and cannot scatter
disease.
The time in the season to stop tillage depends on the locality, the
season and the variety. It is a good rule to cease cultivation a few
weeks before the grapes attain full size and begin to color, for by
this time they will have weighted down the vines so that fruit and
foliage will be in the way of the cultivator. In the North,
cultivation ceases in the ordinary season about the first of August,
earlier the farther south. Rank-growing sorts, as Concord or Clinton,
do not need to be cultivated as late as those of smaller growth and
scantier foliage, as Delaware or Diamond. The cover-crop seed is
covered the last time over with the cultivator. Plate IV shows a
well-tilled vineyard of Concords.
IRRIGATION
The grape, as a rule, withstands drought very well, several species
growing wild on the desert's edge. Even in the semi-arid regions of
the far West, where other fruits must always be irrigated, the grape
often grows well without artificial watering. Irrigation is practiced
in vineyards in the United States only on the Pacific slope and here
the practice is not as general as with other fruit crops. Whether the
grape shall be grown under irrigation or not is a local and often an
individual question answered with regard to several conditions; as the
local rainfall, the depth and character of the soil, the cost of water
and ease of irrigation. These conditions are all correlated and make
about the most complex and difficult problem the growers of grapes in
semi-arid regions have to solve. As long, however, as the grape-grower
can grow fairly vigorous vines and harvest a fairly bountiful crop by
natural rainfall, he should not irrigate; for, even though the crop
offsets the cost, there are several objections to growing grapes under
irrigation. The vines are subject to more diseases and physiological
troubles; the fruit is said to lack aroma and flavor; grapes grown on
irrigated land do not stand shipment well, the unduly inflated grapes
often bursting; wine-makers do not like irrigated grapes as well as
those from non-irrigated lands; and watery grapes from irrigated lands
make inferior raisins. It is maintained, however, with a show of
reason, that grapes suffer in irrigated vineyards in the ways set
forth only when the vines are over-or improperly irrigated.
[Illustration: PLATE VII.--Barry (x2/5). Delaware (x2/5).]