The vines are almost invariably planted on rising ground, the lower slopes, which seldom escape the spring frosts, producing the best wines. The vines are placed very close together, there often being as many as six within a square yard, and the result is that they reciprocally impoverish each other. Planting takes place between November and April, the vine-growers of the River being usually in advance of those of the Mountain in this operation. Plants two or three years old and raised in nurseries are usually made use of. These are placed either in holes or trenches. The roots have a little earth sprinkled over them, to which a liberal supply of manure or compost is added, and the holes having been filled up and trodden, the vines are pruned down to a couple of buds above the ground. [Illustration: VINE PREPARED FOR 'PROVINAGE.'] In the course of two or three years they are ready for the operation of 'provinage,' or layering, a method of multiplication universally practised in the Champagne. This consists in burying in a trench, from six to eight inches deep dug on one side of the plant, two or more of the principal shoots, left when the vine was pruned for this especial purpose. The whole of the two-years'-old wood is thus buried, and the ends of the shoots of one-year-old, which are left above ground, are cut down to the second bud. The shoots thus laid underground are dressed with a light manure, and in course of time take root and form new vines, which bear during their second year. This operation is performed simultaneously with the 'bêchage' in the early spring, and is annually repeated until the vine is five years old, the plants thus being in a state of continual progression; a system which accounts for the juvenescent aspect of the Champagne vineyards, where none of the wood of the vines showing above ground is more than three years old. [Illustration: PLAN OF 'PROVINAGE À L'ÉCART' IN A NEWLY-PLANTED VINEYARD.] The two principal plans adopted in provining are styled the 'écart' and the 'avance.' In the first, which is usually followed in newly-planted vineyards, the two shoots are carried forward to the right and left--so as to form the two base points of an equilateral triangle, of which the point of departure is the summit--and are maintained in this position by the aid of wooden or iron pegs. In the 'provinage à l'avance' both shoots are carried forward in the same direction, and sometimes a variation embodying the two systems is employed. [Illustration: PROVINAGE À L'ÉCART.] [Illustration: PROVINAGE À L'AVANCE.]