Cliap. 21.] 
TEEES PllOPAGATED FROM LAYERS. 
4/5 
being so called from the weight of oil that they produce each 
year. Hence it is that Mago has prescribed an interval be- 
tween these trees of no less than seventy-five feet every way, 
or of forty-five at the very lowest, when the soil happens to be 
meagre, hard, and exposed to the winds. There is no doubt, 
however, that Eaetica reaps the most prolific harvests from 
between her olives. 
It will be generally agreed that it is a most disgraceful 
piece of ignorance to lop away the branches more than is ab- 
solutely necessary in trees of vigorous growth, and so preci- 
pitate old age ; as also, on the other hand, what is generally tan- 
tamount to an avowal of unskilfulness on the part of those 
who have planted them, to have to cut them down altogether. 
JSTo thing can reflect greater disgrace upon agriculturists than 
to have to undo what they have done, and it is therefore much 
the best to commit an error in leaving a superfluity of room. 
CHAP. 20. (13.) TREES WHICH GROW BUT SLOWLY : THOSE WHICH 
GROW WITH RAPIDITY. 
Some trees are naturally slow in their growth ; and those 
in particular which grow solely from seed^' and are long-lived. 
On the other hand, those that are short-lived grow with great 
rapidity, such as the fig, pomegranate, plum, apple, pear, 
myrtle, and willow, for instance; and yet these are the very 
first to display their productions, for they begin to bear at 
three years old, and make some show of it even before that 
period. The pear is the slowest in bearing of all the trees 
above enumerated. The cypirus,^^ however, and the shrub 
known as the pseudo-cypirus^^ are the earliest in coming to 
maturity, for they flower almost immediately, and then produce 
their seed. All trees will come to maturity more rapidly when 
the suckers are removed, and the iiutrimental juices are thrown 
into the stock only, 
CHAP. 21. TREES PROPAGATED EROM LAYERS. 
ISTaturC; too, has taught us the art of reproduction from 
layers. The bramble, by reason of its thinness and the exces- 
97 Virgil, Georg. ii. 57, makes the same remark. 
^8 This shrub has not been identified. 
99 See B. xii. c. 26. 
