502 pleat's natueal histoet. [Book XVII. 



is wet or the soil naturally dry, to plant the mallet-shoots in 

 autumn, unless, indeed, there is anything in the nature of the 

 locality to counteract it ; for while a dry, hot soil makes it 

 necessary to plant in autumn, in a moist, cold one it may he 

 necessary to defer it until the end of spring even. _ In a 

 parched soil, too, it would be quite in vain to plant quicksets, 

 and it is far from advantageous to set mallet-shoots in a dry 

 ground, except just after a fall of rain. On the other hand, 

 in moist localities, a vine in leaf even may be transplanted and 

 thrive very well, and that, too, even as late as the summer 

 solstice, in Spain, for example. It is of very considerable ad- 

 vantage that there should be no wind stirring on the day of 

 planting, and, though many persons are desirous that there 

 should be a south wind blowing at the time, Cato 17 is of quite 

 a different way of thinking. 



In a soil of medium quality, it is best to leave an interval of 

 five 18 feet between every two vines ; where it is very fertile 

 the distance should be five feet at least, and where it is poor 

 and thin eight at the very most. The TJmbri and the Marsi 

 leave intervals between their vines of as much as twenty feet 

 in length, for the purpose of ploughing between them ; such 

 a plot of ground as this they call by the name of "porcule- 

 tum." In a rainy, foggy locality, the plants ought to be set 

 wider apart, but in dry spots nearer to one another. Careful 

 observation has discovered various methods of economizing 

 space ; thus, for instance, when a vineyard is planted in 

 shaded ground, a seed-plot is formed there as well ; or, in 

 other words, at the same time that the quickset is planted in 

 the place which it is finally to occupy, the mallet-shoot in- 

 tended for transplanting is set between the vines, aswell as 

 between the rows. By adopting this method, each jugerum 

 will produce about sixteen thousand quicksets ; and the result 

 is, that two years' fruit is gained thereby, a cutting planted 

 being two years later in bearing than a quickset transplanted. 

 Quicksets, when growing in a vineyard, are cut down at 

 the end of a year, leaving only a single eye above ground ; 



more especially as it agrees with what has heen previously said in this 

 Chapter in reference to declivitous ground. 



" De He Rust. 40. 



18 He differs somewhat in these measurements from Columella, B. 



IT. C. 11. 



