232 GREAT OR VINEYARD CULTURE. 



ture pursued by those who were successful in their management. 

 The details which will be given hereafter, when speaking of 

 the different French vineyards will fully establish these facts. 

 The Romans reared their vines by fastening them to certain 

 trees, as the poplar and the elm, &c,, whence these trees were 

 said to be wedded to the vines, which gave rise to Ovid's ele- 

 gant and entertaining story of Vertumnus and Pomona. The 

 vines, as has been already stated, mounted to the very highest 

 branches of the loftiest trees, and even overtopped them ; and 

 Pliny states that on this account the grape gatherers, in time 

 of vintage, put a clause into their covenants when they were 

 hired, that in case their , feet should slip and their necks be 

 broken, their employers should give orders for their funeral 

 fire and tomb at their own expense. This mode of culture is 

 still continued in that country, as well as in many parts of 

 Sicily, where Swinburne tells us, in the walks under the rocky 

 cliffs of Posilipo, the peasant is seen swinging from the top 

 of a tree on a rope of twisted willows, engaged in trimming 

 the poplar and the luxuriant tendrils of the vine, while the 

 whole vale rings with his rustic ditty, which so naturally brings 

 to mind the verse in Virgil 



" Hinc alta sub rupe canet fronrlfttur ad auras. 1 * 



The lopper shall sing to the winds under the lofty rodu 



Preparing the Ground. 



Although various modes are pursued in the preparation of 

 soil by trenching or ploughing it to a greater or less depth, 

 and in extending this preparation to the whole field or only 

 to broader or narrower strips where the rows of vines are to 

 be planted, still there cannot exist a doubt that the more per- 

 fectly this first operation is accomplished, and the more light 

 and mellow the earth thereby becomes, the more rapid will be 

 the advance of the vines from the advantages thus afforded for 

 the extension of the roots. The French writers universally 

 allow, that in preparing for a vineyard, it is preferable that 

 the whole ground should be trenched to the depth of one foot 



