BOOK III. XVIII. 1-4 



any ground that is stirred and prepared for vineyards. 

 But let us return to the subject before us. 



Quite wrong, in my opinion, is the method of 2 

 planting employed by Julius Atticus, which allows 

 mallet-cuttings ^\ith bent and t^\isted heads ; and 

 there is more than one reason for avoiding this 

 practice : in the first place, because no stem which is 

 damaged and broken before it is put into the ground 

 thrives better than one that is planted whole without 

 suffering any injury; and in the second place, any- 

 thing that is curved back and tending upward 

 at the time of planting resists the efforts of the 

 digger, in the manner of a hook, when the time comes 

 for taking it up, and like a barb fixed in the ground 

 it is broken off before it can be pulled out. For the 

 wood is brittle in that section where it received injury 

 when twisted and bent at the time of planting, and 

 for this reason it loses the majority of its roots, which 

 are broken off. But, even though I pass over 3 

 these disadvantages, surely I cannot conceal a 

 point that is most hurtful ; for a short time ago, 

 while speaking of the uppermost part of the shoot, 

 which I said was called the arrow, I observed that 

 fruit is generally put forth Avithin the limits of 

 the fifth or sixth eye nearest to the old branch. 

 Therefore one who bends the shoot destroys this 4 

 productive part ; because that part which is doubled 

 over contains three or four eyes, and the remaining 

 two or three fruit-bearing eyes are pressed deep into 

 the earth, and when so buried they produce, not wood, 

 but roots. Thus it comes about that, what we 



* fnictum edi Schn. ex coniect. Oesn. : fructu medii SAac : 

 fructus medii M, edd. ante Schn. 



* deprimantur SAacM. ^ ut edd. : sed SAacM. 



33^ 



