514 pliny's NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVII. 



not shoot at the place where it has been cut. As to the quick- 

 sets, they ought to be removed directly after the vintage. 



In more recent times, a plan has been discovered of planting 

 a dragon branch near the tree — that being the name given to 

 an old stock-branch that has become hard and tough in the 

 course of years. For this purpose, it is cut as long as pos- 

 sible, and the bark is taken off from three-fourths of its length, 

 that being the portion which is to be buried in the ground ; 

 hence it is, too, that it is called a "barked" 59 plant. It is 

 then laid at full length in the furrow, the remaining part pro- 

 truding from the ground and reclining against the tree. This 

 method is the most speedy one that can be adopted for growing 

 the vine. If the vine is meagre or the soil impoverished, it is 

 usual to keep it cut down as near to the ground as possible, 

 until such time as the root is strengthened. Care, too, should 

 be taken not to plant it covered with dew, 60 nor yet while the 

 wind is blowing from the north. The vine itself ought to 

 look towards the north-east, but the young stock-shoots should 

 have a southern aspect. 



There should not be too great haste 61 in pruning a young 

 vine, but a beginning should be made by giving the wood and 

 foliage a circular form, care being taken not to prune it until 

 it has become quite strong ; it should be remembered, too, 

 that the vine, when trained upon a tree, is generally a year 

 later in bearing fruit than when grown on the cross-piece. 

 There are some persons, again, who altogether forbid that^ a 

 vine should be pruned until such time as it equals the tree in 

 height. At the first pruning it may be cut to within six feet 

 from the ground, below which a shoot must be left, and en- 

 couraged to run out by bending the young wood. Upon this 

 shoot, when pruned, there should not be more than three buds 

 left. The branches that take their rise from these buds should 

 be trained in the following year upon the lowermost stages of 

 the tree, and so in each successive year taught to climb to the 

 higher ones. Care, too, should always be taken to leave one 

 hard, woody branch at each stage, as well as one breeding 

 shoot, at liberty to mount as high as it pleases. In addition 

 to these precautions, in all pruning, those shoots should be cut 

 off which have borne fruit the last year, and after the ten- 



59 Easilis. s0 Columella, B. v. c. 6. 



ei Columella, B. v. c. 6. 



