BOOK rV^ I. 6-II. I 



plants grow up quickly when they are not wearied 

 and pressed do\vn by a great weight of soil, and that 

 plants which are lightly supported become more pro- 

 ductive. Por both these arguments of Julius Atticus 

 are overthrown by the case of planting beside 

 trees, which obviously makes the vine much stronger 

 and more fruitful ; which would not be the case if 

 the plants were suffering from being sunk too deep. 

 What answer is there to this — that the soil of a 7 

 trenched plot, while it is newly broken up and loos- 

 ened, swells up as though by some process of leaven- 

 ing.'' and then, when it has taken on no great length 

 of age, it is packed, and settles, and leaves the roots 

 of the vines swimming,** so to speak, on the surface 

 of the ground ? But this does not happen to my way 

 of planting, in which the vine is put down to a greater 

 depth. Now, as to the argument that deep-set plants 

 are said to suffer from cold, this too we do not 

 deny. But a depth of two and three-fourths feet is 8 

 not such that it can produce that effect ; especially 

 since, as we said a little before, the vine, though 

 planted deeper beside a tree, still escapes the 

 aforesaid discomfort. 



II. The other point, their belief that two stakes are 

 wedded with the shoots of one plant at less expense, 

 is most falsely taken. For if the actual root dies, two 

 props are bereft, and presently there must be a substi- 

 tution of the same number of quicksets, which, by their 

 number, burden the accounts of the vinedresser ; or, 

 if it takes hold and, as often happens, is of a black 



" Cf. Quintilian, X. 7. 28, innatans ilia verborum facilitas 

 in alliLm reducctur, siciit mstici vroximas vitis radices amputatU, 

 quae illam in summum solum ducant, ut inferiores penitus 

 descendendo firmentur. 



357 



