BOOK XVII. vwv. 177-179 



posscss her fuU strength while the new shoot is grow- 

 ing sturdy, and she will weleomc her yearly progeny 

 with her whole substance when it is perniitted to be 

 born : Nature engenders nothing piecemeal. Whcn 

 the new growth has beeome stroniif enouijh it will 

 have to be put in position on a cross-bar at once, 

 but if it is still rather weak it must be pruned back 

 and put in a sheltered position direetly under the 

 bar. It is the strength of the stem and not its age 

 that decides ; it is rash to put a vine under control 

 before it has reached the thickness of one's thumb. 

 In the following year one branch or two according to 

 the strength of the parent vine should be brought on, 

 and the same shoots niust b(; nurscd in the foHowing 

 year also if lack of strength makes this necessary, 

 and only in the third year shoukl two niore be added ; 

 nor should more than four branches ever be allowed 

 to grow — in short no indulgence shoukl be shown, 

 and fertility should always be kept in cheek. Also 

 Nature is such that she wants to produce oft- 

 spring more than she wants to Hve — all that is 

 subtraeted from a plant's wood is added to the 

 fruit ; the vine on the contrary prefers its own 

 growth to the production of fruit, because fruit is 

 a perishable article ; thus it luxuriates ruinously, and 

 does not fill itself out but exhausts itself. 



The nature of the soil wiil also provide advice : in 

 a thin soil, even if the vine possesses strength, it must 

 be pruned back and kept within the cross-bar, so that 

 all its young growth may shoot underneath the bar. 

 The gaps between \\\\\ have to be very small, so that 

 the vine may just touch the bar and hope to grasp 

 it but not actually do so, and consequently may not 

 recline upon it and sprcad itself out luxuriously. 



123 



