17 



is done by hand ; that plough, harrow, or cultivator is an unknown thing here. 

 The vineyards appear to be very irregularly planted ; originally individual 

 plants seem to have been placed between 3ft. and 4ft. apart. Considerable 

 irregularity arises subsequently from the practice of frequent layering, which 

 appears to be very largely adopted for increasing the existing number of 

 plants, or for renewing old ones that have become injured or effete. The 

 main winter tillage consists in mounding up all the earth in a central pyramid, 

 having four vines at its base. This form of tillage, although very perfect, 

 must be very costly. The work is done by hand with a heavy, short-handled 

 hoe. Both women and men take part in it in long, cheerful gangs. I have 

 seen as many as 20 at a time working together in a vineyard not four acres 

 in area. Subsequently in spring, after the fall of the bulk of the rains, these 

 mounds are levelled down, and what weeds may have sprung up destroyed. 

 The vineyards do not appear to receive any further summer tillage beyond 

 perhaps occasional hoeing up of rank weeds. I was informed by one grower 

 that the work of tilling over a vineyard twice could be done by three men 

 to the stremma, or 12 men to the acre ; and as in the Peloponnesus alone 

 there is as much as 250,000 acres under vines (including wine grapes, which 

 are similarly treated), the tillage of the soil affords a vast amount of occupa- 

 tion to the peasantry. 



I was not much struck with the way in which the vines are pruned. This 

 operation appears to be carried out rather carelessly, much less well than 

 is the case in the Smyrna vineyards which I visited later on. Old vines 

 carry long, straggling arms, and are covered with dead wood. They are 

 trained to very irregular gooseberry bushes, carrying as a rule three to four 

 rather long spurs. Where Sultana vines are grown one or two rods appear 

 to be used in addition. It should be stated here that in Greece the Sultana 

 is used very extensively as a table raisin. A sharp pruning hook is employed 

 for all pruning operations. 



The vineyards in Greece are subject here to both downy mildew (Peronos- 

 pora) and to oidium. To protect the vines against Peronospora the vineyards 

 are sprayed two r three times during the course of a season with Bordeaux 

 mixture (copper sulphate and lime) ; and against oidium they are dressed 

 with sulphur three or four times, according as the season is more or less damp. 

 Fortunately the phylloxera has not yet been discovered in Greece. 



All currant vines are ring-barked early in May, just as the fruit is beginning 

 to set. The general practice consists in making a single incision through 

 the bark on the stem ; although in Volstizzia, the best currant district, 

 the incision is generally placed around the main branches of the vine. The 

 plants are said to suffer less from this practice. According to Mr. Wood, 

 ring-barking has had the effect of increasing the size of the fruit and raising 

 the total yield of the vineyards, but, on the other hand, it has reduced the 



