Chap. 35.] 
CULTUEE or THE VINE. 
497 
slips that are thus planted sometimes bear the same year the 
fruit that they would have borne if they had remained upon 
the tree : this takes place when they have been planted in 
good seasons and are replete with fecundity, for then they 
bring to maturity the fruits the conception of which was com- 
menced in another spot. Eig- trees that are thus planted may 
very easily be transplanted in the third year. As some com- 
pensation for the rapidity with which this tree becomes old, 
it has thus received the privilege of coming to maturity®^ at a 
very early period. 
The vine throws out a great number of shoots. In the first 
place, however, none of them are ever used for planting, 
except those which are useless, and would have been cut away 
as mere brushwood ; while, on the other hand, every part is 
pruned off that has borne fruit the previous year. In former 
times, it was the custom to plant the slip with a head at the 
extremity, consisting of a piece of the hard wood on each side 
of it, the same, in fact, that is called a mallet shoot at the 
present day. In more recent times, however, the practice 
has been adopted of pulling it off merely with a heel attached 
to it, as in the fig and there is no kind of slip that takes 
v/ith greater certainty. A third method, again, has been added 
to the former ones, and a more simple one as well, that of 
taking the slip without any heel at all. These slips are 
known by the name of arrow- ^^shoots, when they are twisted 
before planting; and the same, when they are neither cut 
short nor twisted, are called three-budded^^ slips. The same 
sucker very often furnishes several slips of this kind. To 
plant a stock-shoot of the vine is unproductive, and, indeed, 
no shoots will bear unless they are taken from a part that has 
borne fruit already. A slip that has but few knots upon it, is 
looked upon as likely not to bear ; while a great number of 
buds is considered an indication of fruitfulness. Some persons 
say that no suckers ought to be planted, but those which have 
already blossomed. It is far from advantageous^^ to plant 
8^ On the contrary, the %-tree has been known to Hve to a very great 
age. s"^ See B. xvi. c. 51. 
^ This method of planting the vine is still extensively used ; especially 
the low kinds. ®^ See c. 13 of this Book. 
SagittsB. Trigemmes. 
92 " Pampinarius." This assertion has been found to be erroneous. 
53 This practice has been condemned by modern cultivators. 
VOL. III. K K 
