XLII THE VINES OF THE FARM 
“They shall sit every man under his vine and under his figtree, and none 
shall make them afraid.”-—Micah, 4:4. 
The cultivated crops of the world have in the past grown 
mainly in fields, gardens and vineyards. Many crops have 
been raised in the fields, and still more in the gardens, but the 
vineyards have been given over mainly to one crop—the fruit 
of the vine. There is but one vine that fills any very large 
place economically: the word vine means grapevine in 
much of our ancient literature. 
Before the dawn of history, the ancient cultivator found 
the grape suited to his sunny hills. It was long-lived and 
strong-rooted, and served to bind the soil of the terraced 
slopes. It was resistant to drought and adaptable to situa- 
tion. It was responsive to care and amenable to training. 
It was beautiful in leafage and fragrant in flower and luscious 
in fruit, and in every way desirable about his home. So he 
made a vineyard for it, equipped with a watchtower and a 
wine-press, and he fenced it in. He planted and fertilized it 
and pruned it and trained it over arbors, and sat beneath its 
shadow. He ate its fruit and drank its vintage—and, some- 
times, used its wine to make him drunken, even before the 
dawn of history. It is a large and varied role that the 
products of the vine have played in human affairs. 
Other vines besides the grape are cultivated in fields and 
gardens, but they aremostly short-lived herbaceous things like 
hops, pole-beans, and gourds. One wild vine with excellent. . 
edible tuberous roots, the apios, we have had before us in 
Study 7 (fig. 37). Aside from the grape, the best known of our 
vines are those that are raised for the singular beauty of their 
flowers and foliage. Splendid flowers, indeed, are those of 
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