BOOK XMI. .\x.\v. 202-205 



farmer who trains less than three on each. It 

 damages anv but strong trecs to wed vines to tliem, 

 as the rapid growth of the vines kills them off. It is 

 essential to plant the vines in a trench three feet 

 deep, with a space of a foot betwecn them and the 

 tree ; this saves the nced of a mallet-shoot and of 

 tuming over the ground and the expense of digging, 

 inasmuch as this method of using a tree has the 

 special advantage that for the samc ground to cariy 

 corn actuallv benefits the vincs, and moreover that 

 the height of the vine looks after itself, and does not 

 make it necessary, as in a vincAard, to guard it with a 

 wall or hedge, or at all events by going to the expense 

 of ditches, so as to protect it from injury by animals. 



In growing vines on a tree the only method used Lnyering of 

 among those already dcscribed is that of quicksets or ^unlr^sT"^ 

 of layers ; and of layering there are two varieties, as 

 we have said : that of using baskets projecting from §97. 

 the actual staging of the tree, the most approved 

 method, as it is safest from cattle, and the other one 

 by bending down a vine or a main braneh at the side 

 of its own tree or round the nearest to it not occupied. 

 It is recommcnded that the part of the parent tree 

 above the ground shoukl be scraped, to prevent it 

 from making shoots ; and not less than four buds are 

 covered up in the ground so as to take root, while 

 two are left above ground on the head. A vine grown 

 on a tree is set in a trench four feet long, three broad 

 and two and a half deep. Aftcr a year a cut is made 

 in the layer down to the cambium, so that it may grad- 

 ually get used to its roots, and the stem is pruned back 

 at its end down to two buds from the ground ; and 

 at the end of two years the layer is completely cut 

 off from the stock and is put back deeper into the 



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