BOOK XVII. x.wv. 168-170 



side banked up as well. Some of these holes Avill 

 be made longer, so as to take two vines at opposite 

 ends, and these will be called beds. The root of the 

 vine should be in the middle of the hole, but the 

 slip itself, bedded in firm soil, should be pointing 

 due east, and at tirst it should be given supports 

 made of reed. Vineyards should be bisected by a 

 main path running east and west, six vards wide so 

 as to allow the passage of carts going in opposite 

 directions ; and they should be intersectcd by other 

 cross-paths ten feet wide running through the middle 

 of each acre, or, if the vineyard is a specially large 

 one, it should have a main cross-path north and south 

 as many feet wide as the one east and west, but 

 always be divided up by fifth-row cross-paths — that 

 is, so that each square " of vines may be encloscd by 

 every fifth * stay. Where the soil is heavy it should 

 only be planted after being dug over several times, 

 and only quickset shoukl be planted, but in a thin, 

 loose soil even a mallct-shoot may be set in a hole 

 or a furrow. On hill-sides it is better to drive furrows 

 across the slope than to dig up the soil, so that the 

 falHng away of earth may be hekl up by t)ie cross- 

 banks formed by the furrows. In rainy conditions or 

 dry soil when the weather is wet mallet-shoots are best 

 planted in autumn, unless the character of the particu- 

 lar area requires otherwise : a dry and hot soil will call 

 for autumn planting, but a damp and cold soil will need 

 it as late as the end of spring. It is no good pLanting 

 a quickset either in dry soil, nor is it much use to 

 plant a mallet-shoot in dry soils either, except after 

 rain, but in well watered soils a vine may properly 

 be pLinted evcn when it is producing leaves, and right 

 on to midsummcr, as is the practicc in Spain. It is 



117 



