Sometimes the grape itself is planted as a catch-crop in the vineyard. That is, twice the number of vines required in a row for the permanent vineyard are set with the expectation of cutting out alternate vines when two or three crops have been harvested and the vines begin to crowd. This practice is preferable to inter-planting with bush-fruits, yet there is not much to commend it if the experience of those who have tried it is taken as a guide. Too often the filler vines are left a year too long with the result that the permanent vines are checked in growth for several years following. The profits from the fillers are never large, scarcely pay for the extra work, and if the permanent vines are stunted, the filler must be put down as a liability rather than as an asset. _Cover-crops._ In an experiment being conducted by the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, grapes do not give a very appreciable response to cover-crops in yield of fruit or growth of vine.[9] There seem to be no other experiments to confirm the results at the New York Station, and grape-growers nowhere have used cover-crops very generally for the betterment of their vineyards. There is doubt, therefore, as to whether grapes will respond profitably to the annual use of cover-crops in yield of fruit, which, of course, is the ultimate test of the value of cover-crops, but a test hard to apply unless the experiment runs a great number of years. Leaving out the doubtful value of cover-crops in increasing the supply of plant-food and thereby producing an increase in yield, there are at least three ways in which cover-crops are valuable in the vineyard. Thus, it is patent to all who have tried cover-crops in the vineyard that the land is in much better tilth and more easily worked when some green crop is turned under in fall or spring; it is not unreasonable to assume, though it is impossible to secure reliable experimental data to confirm the belief, that cover-crops protect the roots of grapes from winter-killing; certainly it may be expected that a cover-crop sowed in midsummer will cause grapes to mature their wood earlier and more thoroughly so that the vines go into the winter in better condition. The only objection to be raised against cover-crops in the vineyard is that pickers, mostly women, object to the cover-crop when wet with rain or dew and usually choose to pick in vineyards having no such crop. This seemingly insignificant factor often gives the grape-grower who sows cover-crops much trouble in harvest time.