BOOK III. XVII. 3-x\'iii. I 



the eyes, for every fruiting cane bears in abundance 

 within the limits of the fifth or sixth bud ; while in the 

 remaining portion, however great its length, it is 

 either entirely lacking in fruit or displays very 

 small clusters. For this reason the barrenness of the 

 tip was justly censured by the ancients. Moreover, 

 the mallet-shoot was so planted by these same ancients 

 that some part of the old branch remained fixed to 

 the new. But experience has condemned this kind 4 

 of planting. For all that was left of the old wood 

 quickly rotted wdth the moisture after it was set and 

 covered with earth, and by the damage to itself it 

 killed the tender I'oots lying next to it and scarcely 

 creeping out as yet ; and when this happened, the 

 upper part of the plant would wither. Afterwards 

 Julius Atticus and Cornelius Celsus, the most dis- 

 tinguished authorities of our time, following the 

 example of the Sasernas, father and son, smoothed 

 off every remaining bit of the old branch at the very 

 joint where the new wood begins, and so they set 

 the slip, tip and all. 



XVIII, But Julius Atticus pressed the aforesaid 

 plant into the ground with its head'' twisted and 

 bent so that it might not slip away from the trench- 

 fork. The name pastinum or trench-fork, by the 

 way, is given by farmers to that two-pronged imple- 

 ment of iron with which the plants are set.'' Hence 

 even old vineyards which were turned by the spade 

 for a second time were said to be " repastinated," 

 this term belonging properly to a vineyard that 

 was restored ; but modern custom, ignorant of 

 ancient usage, applies the term " repastinated " to 



» Cf. Isidore. Orig. XX. 14. 8. 



329 



