BOOK III. IX. 5-8 



in selecting the progeny of victorious Olympic 

 mares, should base our hope of a bountiful vintage 

 upon the selection of progeny of the most fruitful 

 Amineans. And there is no reason why the tedious- 

 ness of the time required should discourage anyone ; 

 for any delay that occurs is taken up in the testing 

 of the shoot. But when the fruitfulness of the 6 

 vine has been proved, it is very quickly raised to a 

 very large number by ingrafting." You especially, 

 Silvinus, can bear me out in this, since you will 

 readily recall that I completed the planting of 

 two iugera of vineyard within two years time by 

 making grafts fi-om one early- ripe vine belonging 

 to you on your place at Caere.* What number 7 

 of vines, then, do you think could be grafted 

 within the same length of time with shoots taken 

 from two iugera, when these two iugera are them- 

 selves the offspring of one vine ? Therefore, as I 

 have said, if we will exercise industry and care we 

 shall easily, by the aforesaid method, establish 

 vineyards of Aminean vines as fruitful as those of the 

 Bituric or Basilic varieties : only it will be of import- 

 ance, in transplanting the sets, to give heed to like 

 conditions of climate and situation and to the habit of 

 the vine itself; since a cutting is usually impaired in 

 quality if the situation of the ground or climatic 

 conditions are distasteful to it, or even if it is trans- 

 ferred from tree to trellis. Accordingly, we shall 8 

 transplant from cold places to cold, from warm to the 

 like, and from open vineyards to open vineyards. 

 Yet Aminean stock can better endure the change 

 from a cold to a warm situation than from a warm to a 

 cold; because every kind of vine, and especially that 



* See Chap. 3, sec, 3, above. 



281 



