BOOK IV. X. i-xi. I 



sap, it allows an easy, smooth, and even cut, and does 

 not resist the knife. Celsus and Atticus, moreover, 

 have followed his method. To us it seems that plants 

 should not be held back by close pruning unless they 

 are very weak, and that at least they should not 

 be cut in the spring. But, to be sm-e, in the first year 2 

 that they are set out they should be aided, every 

 month Avhile they are in leaf, by frequent digging 

 and by leaf-pruning, so that they may gain strength 

 and support not more than one branch of firm wood. 

 And when they have reared this they should be 

 trimmed clean, in our opinion, in the autumn, or in 

 the spring if it is more convenient, and freed from 

 secondary shoots ■which the leaf-pruner had left on 

 the upper part ; and so they should be placed upon 

 the frame. For it is the smooth and straight vine, 

 without a scar, that overtops the frame with a rod 

 of the first year. This happens, however, with 

 few farmers, and seldom ; and for that reason the 

 aforementioned authors thought it best to cut off the 

 first shoots of the \ine. But in any case, spring prun- 3 

 ing is not preferable in ail regions : for where the 

 climate is cold, that time of pruning is doubtless to be 

 chosen ; but in regions that are sunny, where winters 

 are mild, the best and most natural pruning is that of 

 autumn, at which season, by some divine and eternal 

 law, plants drop both fruit and foliage. 



XL This, I beheve, is the thing to do, whether you 

 have planted a quickset or a cutting. For experience 

 has condemned that long-standing belief that year-old 

 cuttings should not be touched with the knife because 

 they have a dread of it. This was a matter on which 

 Vergil " and Saserna and the Stolos and the Catos * 

 had groundless fears ; and they were mistaken, not 



377 



