BOOK IV. VII. i-viii. I 



must either be pulled off with a greater effort or cut 

 away with the pruning-knife, both of which are to be 

 avoided : the one, because it tears the parent vine if 

 you try to pull them off; the other, because it wounds 

 the vine, which is a harmful thing to do in a stem that 

 is green and not yet mature. For the injury does 2 

 not stop at the exact spot where the edge of the knife 

 made its mark ; but in the heat of summer a wound 

 deeply imprinted by the knife dries up to a greater 

 breadth, with the result that it kills more than a small 

 part of the very body of the mother. And for this 

 reason, if it is necessary that the knife be applied 

 to stems that have already hardened, the cut must 

 be made at a little distance from the mother vine, 

 and spur-like ends " must be left to take upon them- 

 selves the injury of the heat up to the place where the 

 shoots sprout from her side ; for the heat's energy 

 creeps no farther. In the case of the cutting there 3 

 is a similar method of pruning and of encouraging 

 length of wood, if we wish to use a cutting of one year, 

 which I have often done. But if it is your fixed inten- 

 tion to cut it off, so as to use it rather when it is two 

 years old, when you have now reduced it to one shoot 

 and that shoot has exceeded one foot in length, it 

 will be proper to lop off its head, that it may be 

 strengthened rather up to the neck and have more 

 vigour. And this is the first step in the cultivation of 

 plants after they are set. 



VIII. The period next following, as Celsus has re- 

 corded, and Atticus too — men whom our age has 

 especially and rightfully approved — demands greater 

 care. For after the Ides of October,* before the 



* Oct. 15th. Compare with this chapter Palladius, XI 

 (Oct.). 5. 



371 



