206 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



Gentlemen who prune their own vines should observe, 

 that the fruit is always produced upon the shoots of the 

 same year, which are thrown out of the buds of the last 

 year's shoots ; and that it is not the old wood that yields 

 grapes. It is best to prune vines as soon as the fruit is 

 gathered, as the bearing shoots for the following year 

 cannot then be mistaken ; and it is recommended to 

 shorten them, so as to leave but four eyes, as by leaving 

 too many, the vine is exhausted, and yields but poor 

 small fruit. The shoots just above the fourth eye are to 

 be cut, and the cutting to be sloped or cut in such a man- 

 ner, that the water discharging from the shoot may not 

 run on the bud to injure it. About the beginning of 

 May, all vines should be looked over, and the shoots 

 from the old wood should be rubbed off; and if one eye 

 produces two shoots, the weakest must be removed. Vines 

 require frequent examining, after this time, to rub off all 

 dangling shoots ; and about the latter end of June, the 

 ends of the bearing branches are to be nipped off, but 

 those intended for the next year's fruit, may go a month 

 longer before they are topped. 



The blossoms of the vine have an agreeable odour : the 

 ancients used to put them into their wine, to give it this 

 fragrance. 



The Romans reared their vines by fastening them to 

 certain trees, as the poplar and the elm, &c., whence 

 these trees are said to be married to the vines, which 

 gave rise to Ovid's elegant and entertaining story of 

 Vertumnus and Pomona. 



" If that fair elm," he cried, " alone should stan.d, 

 No grapes would glow with gold, and tempt the hand ; 

 Or, if that vine without her elm should grow, 

 'T would creep a poor neglected shrub below." 



Pliny states that the vines in Italy would climb to the 



