BOOK XVII. XXXV. 210-213 



vines directly after vintage and when they are still 

 weary from producing fruit is disapproved of. When 

 they have been pruned they must be tied to the tree 

 ajjain in anothcr place, for unquestionably they feel 

 annovance at the marks made round them by the tie. 



The cross-shoots of the GalHc method of growing rreatment of 

 — two from each side if the pair of vincs are forty '"'''-"^°''- 

 feet apart. but four if twenty — when they mcet are 

 intertwined with each other and tied together in a 

 single clustcr, during the process being stiffened 

 with the aid of wooden rods where they fail, or if 

 the shoots themselves are too short to allow of this, 

 they are stretched out to reach an unoccupied tree 

 by means of a hook tied to them. It used to 

 be the custom to prune these cross-shoots every two 

 years, as they make too heavy a weight when they 

 grow old ; but it is better to give them time to make 

 a ' scraped ' shoot, if their thickness is sufficient ; § 206. 

 otherwise it pays to supply nourishment to the knobs 

 of the snake-branch about to form. 



There is still one other method intermediate Layenngof 

 between this one and propagation by layering — that precautions 

 of throwing down the wholc vine on the earth and /■="■ P"'"'"^- 

 spHtting it with wedges, and leading the shoots from 

 a single vine into several trenches, reinforcing the 

 slenderness of each shoot by tying it to a rod, and 

 not lopping off the branches which run out from the 

 sides. A farmer at Novara, not content with a 

 multitude of shoots carried from tree to tree nor with 

 an abundance of branches, also twines the main 

 branches round forked props set in the ground ; and 

 thus beside the faults of the soil the wines are also 

 made harsh by the method of cultivation. Another 

 mistake is made with the vines near the city of 



147 



