Читать книгу Manual of American Grape-Growing - U. P. Hedrick - Страница 104

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.