_Preparation of the Land for Irrigation._--The preparation of the land for a currant vineyard is expensive, as the land is hardly ever level enough to admit of the vines being immediately planted. The surface is therefore first leveled and divided up in smaller cheeks or flats, each one surrounded by a bank. The whole is covered with a network of ditches, which are necessary for the perfect irrigation of the soil. Where there is water enough, the vineyards are irrigated in November and December, and are then flooded as often as practicable, the water sometimes standing on the ground for weeks in succession. In perfectly arranged vineyards, the irrigation is so managed that the water flows from one check to another, and is first shut off at the advent of the New Year, when the pruning and cultivation begins. By this plentiful irrigation, the ground becomes thoroughly soaked, and remains saturated until the next season, when rain again sets in and fills the irrigation canals. No summer irrigation is used in old vineyards, and in young vineyards only in case of great necessity. _Distances of the Currant Vines._--The vines are set at various distances, in some places four feet each way, in others again six by ten, giving a various number of from 740 to 2,622 to the acre. In some places, the old practice of planting the vines in groups of four still exists. Each group consists of four vines one and a half feet apart, and each group distant six feet from each other either way. Of late, however, the vines are planted farther apart, probably because the soil is becoming exhausted, a favorite way being to have the vines closer one way than the other.