THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 229 



course, the vines are feeble, and produce but a small 

 quantity of fruit each ; the shoots are also very small 

 and weak, but the vines being so close together, the gen- 

 eral aggregate of fruit produced is large. 



At the vineyards on the banks of the Ehine, the vines 

 are supported by stakes five or six feet long ; this is the 

 case, generally, in the vineyard culture of the grape in 

 France. The spur-pi-uning is usually adopted. 



In Italy, also, the same system is generally employed. 

 In this, and other countries, I have seen the table, or flat 

 trellis used. — (See note to North Carolina system.) By 

 the road sides, the long cane-pruning is practised in the 

 following manner : — A vine is trained up the trimk of a 

 tree, and, at the height of twelve or fifteen feet, a long 

 cane of the vine is led from this tree to another, and se- 

 cured ; these canes, hanging in festoons, present a beau- 

 tiful appearance when the fruit is in perfection.* 



In the Azores, the vines are not supported by stakes ; 

 usually, a small pile of stones encircles the plant, and the 

 bearing shoots lie on these. Muscats, and other choice 

 kinds, which are grown expressly for the table, are gen- 

 erally trained on a trellis. 



At Pico, where the wine exported from Fayal is made, 

 the vine is trained on the surface of the soil, (which is 

 mostly volcanic rock,) between walls composed of stone, 



* " Aa we aavanced, the houses became more Italian-like, — and the vines, 

 heavy vpith ripening grapes, hung from bough to bough, through the mul- 

 berry orchards." Page 239. 



" The vines which hiing from tree to tree, were almost breaking beneath 

 clusters as heavy and rich, as those which the children of Israel bore on 

 staves, from the Promised Land." — Page 276. TiewsA-Foot, by J. Bayard 

 Taylor. New York, 18i6. 



