The Raisin Industry / A practical treatise on the raisin grapes, their history, culture and curing

by Gustavus A. Eisen

Too much stress cannot be laid on this work. Remember that the vineyard is to last for a lifetime or more, and that any careless work will ever be an eyesore and a drawback. Unsightly vineyards, carelessly staked out, are never worth as much as those carefully planted, where every row is straight, and where plowing, cultivating and other farming and vineyard work can be performed without meeting any obstacles in the way of crooked rows, or of vines standing out of line. Only too frequently vineyard rows are plowed out, and the cuttings are “slapped” in anyway in order to get the work quickly done. In after years, when the proprietor’s taste and experience has improved, he finds that his reputation as a careless or ignorant grower cannot be changed; for the vineyard is there to last, and to tell the tale of early ignorance or neglect.

1-a, b, c, d.—Vineyard Tools used in the Currant Vineyards of Zante.

Relative Value of Cuttings and Rooted Vines.

—Cuttings and rooted vines have their advocates, but the majority of vineyardists are now in favor of planting rooted vines, and I would myself choose the latter every time. As, however, rooted vines and cuttings are both likely to be used as long as vines are planted, a few words in regard to their respective merits may be of general interest. In planting cuttings, we are never sure that they will all grow. Cuttings if cared for generally do well, but sometimes, even with good care, they fail, and the loss and annoyance is then always great, and even in very careful planting seldom over ninety per cent live, while often twenty-five per cent die. The reason is often careless planting, when the season is favorable, but in unfavorable seasons the failure must be attributed to other causes. Those cuttings which grow, generally grow well and often make as good vines as those raised from previously rooted ones.

The replanting of the cuttings that failed to live is both expensive and troublesome. Every vineyardist knows how difficult it is to succeed in making cuttings, or even vines, grow on places in the vineyard where other ones have failed to grow before. Some attribute this difficulty to some poison in the soil, but I believe the cause will be found in the greater difficulty to attend to a few young vines in among the older ones. The older vines will naturally use up the moisture in the soil, and the cuttings, with their young and tender roots, will have but little chance in the general struggle for life. But even if we suppose that the replanted vines will do equally well, it will be found that the replanting of the cuttings is actually more expensive than the first planting. The reason why this is so lies in the greater work in getting the soil in first-class condition after the first planting failed. In the first planting, the soil has been put in order with the help of horses and plows, while, when we replant, the very spots where the vines are to be located cannot be reached by other means than by a pick or shovel, as, no matter how well the old vineyard is plowed, there will always be a hard spot around every vine, or around the place where the vine should be, and where it failed to grow. If only a few cuttings have taken root, it is better to plow up the whole vineyard and reset, and in so doing endeavor to do better work. I know of vineyards where the owners have not succeeded in replanting during ten years, every year spending money and labor with little success. There will always be a few cuttings that fail to live.

The causes of the uncertainty of cuttings are our inability to foresee the outcome of the season’s climatic conditions. More or less rain has a direct influence on our success. Thus in very rainy seasons the cuttings should be small or rather short, so as to be as much as possible in the upper, dryer and warmer soil. In dry seasons, again, the cuttings should be long, so as to be in the moist ground, but as we can never foresee what the season will be, we had better have a recourse to rooted vines, which, if in good condition, will be comparatively independent of weather and wind.

The Making of Cuttings.

—The making of cuttings is not a difficult process, but nevertheless it should be carefully done in order to insure final success. After the vines have been trimmed and the trimmings have been placed in small piles along the rows of the vineyard, the cuttings should be made as quickly as possible on the spot, the laborers moving from pile to pile as they finish up. The shears should be sharp and kept sharp, both to insure good cuttings and to hasten the work. A poor shear is worse than a poor farmhand, and it pays to keep the best kind of every tool that is used in vineyard work. The size of the cutting must be decided upon according to the conditions of the soil. If the land is very wet and is likely to remain so, an eight-inch, or even a six-inch, cutting, will do, and will grow better than a long one. Long cuttings will reach down into the wet soil and decay at the lower end before they take root. In dry and warm soils the cuttings may be from twelve to eighteen inches long, or even longer if it is desirable to bend them in a circular way in the holes in which they are to be planted, or if the soil is very warm and dry, when it is of importance that the cutting should reach the deeper moisture. A twelve or fourteen inch cutting is probably an average size cutting, and one that will answer most conditions, in case they are not previously known.

A nurseryman, or any one who can give his cuttings as much attention as they require, can use even the very tips of the vines and make them grow. But for general planting, especially direct in the field, seldom more than one or two cuttings can be made from a branch. The cutting should be cut immediately below an eye or joint. Such cuttings grow better, are easier to plant and are less apt to dry out. The more eyes a cutting contains the better is the cutting, as the roots mostly form at the joints. Many make the cuttings with a heel of old wood, but I do not believe such cuttings are in any way preferable to those made of only one season’s wood. The old wood does not grow any better than young wood, generally not so well, and, besides, such cuttings with heels are more difficult to plant and handle. When the cuttings are made, they should at first be placed in small piles, with the top ends all the same way, and as soon as possible afterwards tied up in bundles, with at least two strings to every bundle. For tying, any string will do, but split basket-willow twigs are probably the strongest and least apt to root. Still any stout twine will answer the purpose. From one hundred to two hundred cuttings may conveniently be put in each bundle, according to the size of the cuttings.