BOOK III. X. 16-18 



without regard to a certain maturity required by 

 nature, and is either planted in the ground or even 

 grafted on a shortened stock, just as the age of 

 childhood is capable not even of coition and much 

 less of conception, so it either suffers complete loss 

 of its generative po^ver or at any rate has less of it. 

 Therefore I think that we should take especial care, 17 

 in the choice of cuttings, to select from a fruitful part 

 of the \dne those shoots which, by having already pro- 

 duced fruit, give promise of future productiveness ; 

 and yet we should not be satisfied with single clusters, 

 but should especially approve those shoots which 

 are conspicuous for the greatest number of offspring. 

 Or shall Ave not commend the shepherd who multi- 

 plies the progeny of a dam that has borne tAvins, and 

 the goatherd who breeds the young of those animals 

 which are noted for bearing three at one birth ? For 

 he hopes, of course, that the offspring will match the 

 productiveness of their parents. In the matter of 18 

 vines we also shall follow this very method, and the 

 more so because we have found out that seeds,'' even 

 though carefully tested, sometimes degenerate 

 through some natural malignity ; and this the poet 

 would impress upon us, as if we were deaf to the 

 truth, in saying, 



Some seeds I've seen, though chosen with time 

 and care, 



Degenerate still, unless wdth human hand 



The largest were selected ever}' year. 



But so it is ; it is the will of fate 



That all things backward turn, all things de- 

 teriorate.* 



* Vergil, Gewg. I. 197-200. 



295 



