BOOK XVII. XXXV. 179-182 



This restriction must be so carefully managed that 

 the vine may still want to grow rather than to bear. 



The main brancli should have two or three buds 

 below the cross-bar from which wood may be pro- 

 duced, and thcn it should be stretched out along 

 the bar and tied to it, so as to be held up by il, not 

 to hang down from it, and then after the third bud 

 it should be fastcned more tightly to it by means of 

 a tie, because that also has the effect of resti-aining 

 the outgrowth of the wood and causing a more 

 abundant outburst of shoots short of the tie ; but it 

 is forbiddcn to tie the end of the main branch. The 

 nature of the vine is that the part hanging down or 

 bound with a Hgature yields fruit, and most of all 

 the actual curve of the branch, but that which is 

 short of the hgature makes wood, I suppose because 

 the \-ital spirit and the pith mentioned above §§ 152-15."> 

 meets an obstacle. The woody shoot so produced 

 will bear fruit in the following year. Thus there 

 are two kinds of main branches ; the shoot which 

 comes out of the hard timber and promises wood for 

 the next year is called a leafy slioot " or else when 

 it is above the scar a fruit-bcaring shoot, whereas 

 thc other kind of shoot that springs from a year-old 

 hranch is ahvays a fruit-bearer. There is also left 

 undemeath the cross-bar a shoot called the keeper — 

 this is a young branch, not longer than three buds, 

 which will provide wood next year if the vine's 

 luxurious growth has used itself up — and another 

 shoot next to it, the size of a wart, called the pilferer, 

 is also left, in case the keeper-shoot should fail. 



A vine called on to produce fruit before it com- 

 pletes seven years from being planted as a shp 

 turns into a rush-Uke growth and dies. Nor is it 



125 



