Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/124

 Where, then, the winters are severe and wet, the plantation must be deferred to the spring, and there is, in this case, also less danger from the more moderate heat of the summer. But where the winters are mild, the planting in autumn affords many advantages.

When it is necessary to preserve the cuttings, some time before they are planted, they should be tied in bundles, and kept in a cellar, buried in damp sand, with two or three of the eyes of the upper extremities exposed to the air. In some places they are preserved in trenches, opened in a dry soil; and, if care is taken that they should not press too much on one another, they will be found, when drawn out for plantation, to have put forth, from the lowest eyes, numerous small roots. It is rare that a plant, in this state, if properly managed, does not succeed.

The distance at which the plants are placed, is determined by the height to which it is intended they should be confined, and this again depends upon the climate. In the colder climates, they are frequently planted so close, as from one and a half to two feet, and it is conceived that this closeness serves to protect them from frosts, and assists their ripening, by increasing the temperature of the air, in consequence of its circulating less.

In proportion as the heat of the climate is more