512 pliny's natural history. [Book XVII. 



held by Scrofa, these being our most ancient writers on agri- 

 culture next to Cato, and men of remarkable skill. Indeed, 

 Scrofa himself will not admit that it is beneficial anywhere 

 except in Italy. The experience of ages, however, has suffi- 

 ciently proved that the wines of the highest quality are only 

 grown upon vines attached to trees, and that even then the 

 choicest wines are produced by the upper part of the tree, the 

 produce of the lower part being more abundant ; such being the 

 beneficial results of elevating the vine. It is with a view to 

 this that the trees employed for this purpose are selected. In 

 the first rank of all stands the elm, 54 with the exception of the 

 Atinian variety, which is covered with too many leaves ; and 

 next comes the black poplar, which is valued for a similar 

 reason, being not so densely covered with leaves. Most people, 

 too, by no means hold the ash and the fig in disesteem, as 

 also the olive, if it is not overshadowed with branches. We 

 have treated at sufficient length already of the planting and 

 culture of these several trees. 



They must not be touched with the knife before the end of 

 three years ; and then the branches are preserved, on each side 

 in its turn, the pruning being done in alternate years. In the 

 sixth year the vine is united to the tree. In Italy beyond the 

 Padus, in addition to the trees already mentioned, they plant 

 for their vines the cornel, the opulus, the linden, the maple, 

 the ash, the yoke-elm, and the quercus ; while in Yenetia they 

 grow willows for the purpose, on account of the humidity 55 of 

 the soil. The top of the elm is lopped away, and the branches 

 of the middle are regularly arranged in stages; no tree in 

 general being allowed to exceed twenty feet in height. The 

 stories begin to spread out in the tree at eight feet from the 

 ground, in the hilly districts and upon dry soils, and at twelve 

 in champaign and moist localities. The hands 56 of the trunk 

 ought to have a southern aspect, and the branches that project 

 from them should be stiff and rigid like so many fingers ; at 

 the same time due care should be taken to lop off the thin 

 beardlike twigs, in order to check the growth of all shade. 

 The interval best suited for the trees, if it is the grower's in- 

 tention to keqj the soil turned up with the plough, is forty feet 

 back and front, and twenty at the side ; if it is not to be turned 



54 All these trees are still employed for the purpose in Italy. 

 65 B. xvi. c. 68. 56 Palmse, 



