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._

Prepar