BOOK IV. III. 5-iv. 1 



Therefore the foundations, so to speak, must be laid 

 with the greatest care, and from the very first day of 

 its planting it must be moulded into shape, just as 

 the bodies of young children must be shaped ; and 

 if we have failed to do this, the whole outlay comes 

 to naught, and once neglected the proper time for 

 each operation cannot be recalled. 



Believe it from my experience, Silvinus, that a vine- 

 yard well planted, of good kind, and under the care 

 of a good \dne-dresser, has never failed to make 

 recompense with big interest. And the same Grae- ( 

 cinus makes this clear to us, not only by argument but 

 also by example, in that book which he wrote on the 

 subject of vineyards. He relates that he often used 

 to hear his father say that a certain Paridius 

 Veterensis, his neighbour, had two daughters, and 

 also a farm planted with vineyards ; that he pre- 

 sented one-third of this farm to the older daughter 

 as a dower when she married, and that, none the 

 less, he used to take equally large yields from the 

 remaining two-thirds of the farm ; that he next mar- 

 ried off the younger daughter with a half portion of 

 the land that was left, and, even so, took away noth- 

 ing from its old-time revenue. What does this 

 prove ? ^Vhy, obviously, that that one third of the 

 farm was better tended afterward than the whole 

 farm had been before. 



IV. And so, Publius, let us plant our vineyards 

 with great resolve, and tend them with greater zeal. 

 And the most convenient method of planting them 

 is that one alone which we proposed in the pre- 

 ceding book:" that, after making a planting-hole 

 in prepared ground, the vine be laid flat from about 

 the middle point of the trench, and that its firm 



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