Chap. 35.] CULTUEE OP THE VINE. 495 



as the root. When transplanted, however, it is very hard to be 

 reconciled, as it stands in dread of all change. Hence it is, 

 that it is nearly two years before it will begin to shoot upward ; 

 from which circumstance it is generally preferred to rear the 

 slips in the nursery from the nut itself, to obtaining them from 

 quicksets. The mode of cultivation does not differ from that 

 employed with the plants already mentioned. 17 It is trenched 

 around, and carefully lopped for two successive years ; after 

 which it is able to take care of itself, the shade it gives sufficing 

 to stifle all superfluous suckers : before the end of the sixth 

 year it is fit for cutting. 



A single jugerum of chesnuts will provide stays for twenty 

 jugera of vineyard, and the branches that are taken from near 

 the roots afford a supply of two-forked uprights ; they will last, 

 too, till after the next cutting of the tree. 



The sesculus, 78 too, is grown in a similar manner, the time 

 for cutting being three years at the latest. Being less diffi- 

 cult, too, to propagate, it may be planted in any kind of earth, 

 the acorn — and it is only with the sesculus that this is done — 

 being sown in spring, in a hole nine inches in depth, with in- 

 tervals between the plants of two feet in width. This tree is 

 lightly hoed, four times a year. This kind of stay is the least 

 likely to rot of them all ; and the more the tree is cut, the 

 more abundantly it shoots. In addition to the above, they 

 also grow other trees for cutting that we have already men- 

 tioned — the ash for instance, the laurel, the peach, the hazel, 

 and the apple ; but then they are of slower growth, and the 

 stays made from them, when fixed in the ground, are hardly 

 able to withstand the action of the earth, and much less any 

 moisture. The elder, on the other hand, which affords stakes 

 of the very stoutest quality, is grown from cuttings, like the 

 poplar. As to the cypress, we have already spoken of it at 

 sufficient length. 79 



CHAP. 35. (21.) THE CULTURE OF THE VINE AND THE VARIOUS 



SHRUBS WHICH SUPPORT IT. 



Having now described what we may call the armoury 80 of 



" 7 The willow and the reed. 



w See B. xvi. cc. 5, 6, and 56. 79 In B. xvi. c. 60. 



b0 " Armamentis." More properly, "rigging," or " tackle." Heal- 



