504 plint's natural histoey. [Book XYIJ. 



then at that period they are for cutting it down so completely 

 as to leave three buds only. Others, again, cut down the vine 

 within a year even after it has been transplanted, but then 

 they take care to let the stem increase every year by three or 

 four joints, bringing it on a level with the cross-piece by the 

 fourth. These two methods, however, both of them, retard the 

 fruit and render the tree stunted and knotty, as we see the 

 case in all dwarf trees. The best plan is to make the parent 

 stem as robust and vigorous as possible, and then the wood 

 will be sure to be strong and hardy. It is far from safe, too, 

 to take slips from a cicatrized stem ; such a practice is erro- 

 neous, and only the result of ignorance. All cuttings of this 

 nature are sure to be the offspring of acts of violence, and not 

 in reality of the tree itself. The vine, while growing, should 

 be possessed of all its natural strength; and we find that 

 when left entirely to itself, it will throw out wood in every 

 part ; for there is no portion of it that Nature does not act 

 upon. When the stem has grown sufficiently strong for the 

 purpose, it should at once be trained to the cross-piece ; if, how- 

 ever, it is but weak, it should be cut down so as to lie below 

 the hospitable shelter of the cross-piece. Indeed, it is the 

 strength of the stem, and not its age, that ought to decide the 

 matter. It is not advisable 24 to attempt to train a vine before 

 the stem has attained the thickness of the thumb ; but in the 

 year after it has reached the frame, one or two stock-branches 

 should be preserved, according to the strength developed by 

 the parent tree. The same, too, must be done the succeeding 

 year, if the weakness of the stem demands it ; and in the next, 

 two more should be added. Still, however, there should never 

 be more than four branches allowed to grow ; in one word, 

 there must be no indulgence shown, and every exuberance in 

 the tree must in all cases be most carefully repressed ; for 

 such is the nature of the vine, that it is more eager to bear 

 than it is to live. It should be remembered, too, that all that 

 is subtracted from the wood is so much added to the fruit. 

 The vine, in fact, would much rather produce shoots and ten- 

 drils than fruit, because 25 its fruit, after all, is but a transitory 

 possession : hence it is that it luxuriates to its own undoing, 

 and instead of really gaining ground, exhausts itself. 



24 This applies solely, Fee observes, to the vine trained on the trail or 

 cross-piece. 



28 This certainly appears to be a non sequitur, as applied to the vine. 



