72 NUTRITIVE PLANTS. 



requires also that the shoots should be at a proportionable dis- 

 tance. 



The best season for pruning vines is the end of September, or 

 beginning of October. The cut is always to be made just above 

 the eye, and sloped backwards from it, that if it bleed, the juice 

 may not run upon the bud ; and where there is an opportunity of 

 cutting down some young shoots to two eyes, to produce vigorous 

 shoots for the next year's bearing, it should always be done. In 

 May, when the vines are shooting, they should be looked over, 

 and all the shoots from the old wood should be rubbed off, as also 

 the weaker, whenever there are two produced from one eye. Dur- 

 ing the month of May the branches must be nailed up against the 

 wall as they shoot, and toward the latter end of this month the ends 

 of the bearing branches should be nipped off, which will greatly 

 strengthen the fruit. Those, however, which are to bear the next 

 year should not be stopped before the beginning of July. 



The uses to which the fruit of this valuable tree is applied are 

 well known. The vine was introduced by the Romans into Britain, 

 and appears to have very soon become common. Few ancient mo- 

 nasteries were destitute of a vineyard, and all the oldest ruins con- 

 tain traces of such a plantation. Malmsbury points out the county 

 of Gloucester as excelling every other part of the country, in his 

 time, in the number and richness of its vineyards. In an early period 

 of our history the isle of Ely was expressly denominated the isle of 

 Vines by the Normans. Vineyards are noticed in the Doomsday- 

 book, as also by Bede, as early as the commencement of the eighth 

 century. Wine was paid at this period as a common tithe. The 

 bishop of Ely, shortly after the conquest, appears to have received 

 at least three or four tuns of wine annually as tithes from the vines 

 in his diocese, and in his leases he made frequent reservations of a 

 certain quantity of wine by way of rent. Many of these were little 

 inferior to the French in sweetness. 



Gaul was totally without vines in the days of Caesar; yet not only 

 this province, but the interior of the country, was largely sf<*cked 

 so early as the time of Strabo. In the reign of Vespasian France 

 became famous for her vineyards, and even exported its wines to 

 Italy. 



In the age of Lucallus, however, even the Romans themselves 



