COMPARATIVE METROLOGY. 383 



adjacent vine-ranks will be 1 stajolo, which is just about what 

 one might expect to find it, being a little less than 4 feet. It is 

 obvious that in this way the pezza will contain 1600 vines, and 

 it is impossible to believe but that the fundamental unit in 

 laying out a vineyard, namely, the distance between the vines, 

 should not coincide with the unit of mensuration, namely, the 

 stajolo. This granted, it appears probable, as I have already 

 said, or in fact certain, that the length of the ordine is 10 stajoli 

 or 1 fourth of the 40 stajoli, which would form the longer side 

 of the pezza ; and hence, on far the most probable supposition, 

 namely, that the pezza was similar to its fourth part, it results 

 that the shorter side of the former is 20, and its longer 80 stajoli. 

 What makes all this very curious is that the length of the 

 stajolo is of course incommensurable with the side of the old 

 jugerum, which, for anything we see, was a perfectly convenient 

 shape for a vineyard. I cannot help thinking therefore that 

 there was an historical reason for the change, namely, that the 

 form of the half jugerum was transferred to the whole one, or 

 pezza. A change which probably occasioned a slight one in 

 the inter-spacing of the vines. There may have 'been, for in- 

 stance, in the primitive vineyard 4 quarters, each 30 feet in 

 width and 120 in length, containing 40 ordini and 400 vines, 

 the inter-space men t being only -3 feet. All this was preserved, 

 except that the vines were put at a distance equal to 3 into the 

 square root of 2 ; a change which has nothing to surprise -us 

 seeing the extreme discrepancy of opinion as to the best inter- 

 spacement. Whether the question is settled now I do not know, 

 but the doctrine was at one time popular that 4 or even 5 feet 

 was always the best distance, while on the other hand it was 

 said that even within the limits of France the distance ought to 

 range from 3 or 4 deci-metres in the north to 2 metres in the 

 south. Climate however is clearly only one element, and the 

 question on the whole is probably as hard to settle as the one 

 which relates to the proper quantity of seed corn. In the ab- 

 sence of definite grounds for forming an opinion men might very 

 well have been guided by habit, and the love of the proportions 

 which habit had made the most agreeable both to the eye and 

 to the mind. Virgil has alluded to the vintner's love of sym- 

 metry and of the extreme delight which a man of imagination 

 may be led to feel in the harmonious arrangement of trees. 



