The soil most suitable for the vine in Great Britain is a good calcareous, wheat soil. Turf taken from such land, stacked in narrow ridges for a winter, may be chopped down in the spring, and if clay is in excess, it should have burned clay or old lime rubbish mixed with it in the proportion of 1 to 10. The best manure for a vine border is one into which finely-ground bones, horn shav ings, and other phosphatic manures en ter, not forgetting potash. It is well to avoid stable manure, as that very fre quently breeds fungi. On the other hand, cow manure sours the soil, and should also be avoided. An authority, while investigating the system of vine culture on the banks of the Rhine, found that growers there confined the cultivation to soil nearly all made up of the scoria and debris of the rocks, and avoided soil which in England was found most suit able; but the explanation was that, while the soils in question would grow grapes well, they did not yield wine of the de sired bouquet.
The vine is easily propagated in a va riety of ways—by layers, by cuttings, by eyes; also by budding, marching and grafting, as well as by raising from seed. The common method of establishing vine yards for open-air cultivation in grape growing lands—as in California—is to trench the soil where the land is hard, and to plant young canes at distances of from three to four feet apart, and four to five feet between rows, placing a stake to each young vine for its support. In the second year fruit can be produced, though it is better for the ultimate suc cess of the vineyard not to crop till the third. Another method—more laborious
and costly, and showing in greater ulti mate advantage—is to put the vine cut tings in "nursery rows," to let them form roots there (as with gooseberry cut tings), and then transplant. Much of the labor required for growing grapes either in the open or under glass is de voted to pruning and training the plants. Various systems of pruning are in use, for securing greater vigor in the plant, to obtain more and better fruit, to keep up a constant supply of fruit-bearing wood, and to maintain the fruit-bearing portion, not on the extreme branches only, but near the ground. Nothing can well be less like the great vines grown under glass than the ordinary vine of a French or German vineyard, the vines being kept to some three or four feet in height, so that the uninitiated thinks rather of a raspberry garden than of a vineyard. In Italy greater luxuriance is allowed, and vines are even trained on trees pruned for the purpose.
In the United States, especially Cali fornia, the development of viticulture has been great and rapid. Early attempts were made to grow foreign grapes in the open air, but none of these met with success E. of the Rocky Mountains. Till the Californian grape industry developed, the growing of foreign grapes in the United States was under glass, and for dessert purposes. Four native Ameri can vines (of some 10 found wild) are used for wine making, the most impor tant being V. Lambrusca.