BOOK IV. IV. i-v. I 



wood be raised straight up from the very bottom 

 along the end of the trench and fastened to a reed. 

 For especial care must be taken that the planting-hole 

 be not trough-shaped, but that its ends be drawn up 

 straight, as though to a plumb-line, with cleai*-cut 

 angles. For a vine that lies slantwise and is set 2 

 in a trough in a leaning posture, so to speak, is 

 subject to damage thereafter when the ground is 

 loosened around it ; " for the digger, in his eagerness 

 to deepen the circle of loosened ground, usually 

 wounds a vine that is aslant, and sometimes he cuts 

 it off.* We shall remember, then, to fasten the sprig 

 straight up to its prop from the very bottom of the 

 hole, and so bring it to the surface. Then in other 

 matters, to do as we directed in the preceding 

 book; and next, leaving two eyes standing above 

 ground, to level off the surface. Then, after planting 

 the mallet-cutting between the rows, to loosen the 

 trenched ground anew by frequent digging and re- 

 duce it to powder. For it is in this way that quick- 3 

 sets and other plants that we have set out will best 

 gain strength, when once the softened earth supplies 

 moisture to the roots without allowing weeds to 

 creep in, and when the hardness of the soil does not 

 choke the still tender plants as though with close- 

 fitting bonds. 



V. Moreover, to confess the truth, no limit should 

 be set to the number of times that the ground is to be 

 turned by the hoes, since it is agreed that the more 



" The operation of loosening the soil about the roots of a 

 plant, to admit air and moisture, is summed up in the con- 

 venient, though now obsolete, word " ablaqueation." C/. 

 II. 14. 3, note a. 



» So PaUadius, II. 10. 3. 



365 



