BOOK XVII. xxxv. 208-210 



the next higher level everv vear, one hard growth 

 beinjT ahvavs left at each stage, and one growing shnot 

 left to mount np as high as it pleases. In addition, 

 all the whips that havc borne fruit last time should 

 be cut back by pruning, and fresh shoots should have 

 their ten(h-ils cut away all round and be spread out 

 011 the stages. Our Italian method of pruning drapes 

 the tree with tresses of vines festooned along the 

 branches and clothes the tresses themsclves with 

 bunches C)f grapes, but the GalHc method spreads out 

 into growths passing from tree to tree, while the 

 method used on tlie Aeniilian Road spreads over 

 supports consisting of Atinian elms, twining round 

 them but avoiding their foliage. 



An ignorant way of some growers is to suspend the /nsiruciio 

 vine by means of a tie bencath a bough of the tree, ,%,'/,l"^ 

 a damaging procedure which stiflcs it, as it ought to 

 be held back with an osier withe, not tied tightly 

 (indeed even people who have plenty of willows prefer 

 to do it with a tie softer than the one which these 

 supplv, namely with the plant whieh the Sicilians call 

 by the Greek name ' vine-tie ', while the whole of 

 Greece uses rush,galingale and sedge) ; also it ought 

 to be released from its tie for some days and allowed to 

 stray about and sprcad in disorder and lie down on the 

 ground which it has been gazing at all the year 

 through ; for jiist as draft cattle when unyoked and 

 dogs after a run likc to i'oll on the ground, so even the 

 vines' loins like a stretch when released ; also the tree 

 itself enjoys being relieved of the continual weight, 

 like a man rccovering his breath, and therc is nothing 

 in Nature's handiwork that does not desire some 

 alternations of holiday, after the pattern of the 

 days and nights. On this account pruning the 



145 



