BOOK III. I. 3-6 



This last we rightly set above all other woody-plants, 3 

 not only for the sweetness of its fruits, but also be- 

 cause of the readiness with which in nearly every 

 countiy and every climate, except, however, the icy 

 cold or burning hot, it responds to human care ; it 

 thrives on plain as well as hillside, in compact soil 

 no less than in loose, often also in thin land, in fat 

 ground and lean, in dry ground and wet ; and it 4 

 alone has the greatest endurance of both sorts of 

 intemperate weather — either under a cold sky or 

 one that is hot and stormy. Nevertheless an im- 

 portant consideration is the variety and the habit 

 of the vine which you propose to cultivate, in 

 relation to the conditions of the region. For its 

 cultivation is not the same in every climate and in 

 every soil, nor is there only one variety of that 

 plant ; and which kind is best of all is not easy to 

 say, since experience teaches that to every region 

 its own variety is more or less suited. Still the wise 5 

 farmer will have discovered by test that the kind of 

 vine proper for level country' is one which endures 

 mists and frosts without injury; for a hillside, 

 one which withstands drought and wind. He will 

 assign to fat and fertile land a vine that is slender 

 and not too productive by nature ; to lean land, a 

 prolific vine ; to heavy soil, a vigorous vine that puts 

 forth much wood and foliage ; to loose and rich soil, 

 one that has few canes. He will know that it is 

 not proper to commit to a moist place a vine with 

 thin-skinned fruit and unusually large grapes, but 

 one whose fruit is tough-skinned, small, and full of 

 seeds ; and that plants of a different nature are 

 properly entrusted to a dry site. But in addition 6 

 to this the proprietor of the place will not be un- 



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