502 plii^y's natural histoet. [BookXVIL 
is wet or the soil naturally dry, to plant the mallet- shoots in 
autumn, unless, indeed, there is anything in the nature of the 
locality to counteract it ; for while a dry, hot soil makes it 
necessary to plant in autumn, in a moist, cold one it may be 
necessary to defer it until the end of spring even. In a 
parched soil, too, it would be quite in yain to plant quicksets, 
and it is far from advantageous to set mallet- shoots in a dry 
ground, except just after a fall of rain. On the other hand, 
in moist localities^ a vine in leaf even may be transplanted and 
thrive very well, and that, too, even as late as the summer 
solstice, in Spain, for example, li is of very considerable ad- 
vantage that there should be no wind stirring on the day of 
planting, and, though many persons are desirous that there 
should be a south wind blowing at the time, Cato^^ is of quite 
a different way of thinking. 
In a soil of medium quality, it is best to leave an interval of 
five^^ feet between every two vines; where it is very fertile 
the distance should be five feet at least, and where it is poor 
and thin eight at the very most. The Umbri and the Marsi 
leave intervals between their vines of as much as twent}^ feet 
in length, for the purpose of ploughing between them ; such 
a plot of ground as this they call by the name of *^porcule- 
tum.'^ In a rainy, foggy locality, the plants ought to be set 
wider apart, but in dry spots nearer to one another. Careful 
observation has discovered various methods of economizing 
space ; thus, for instance, when a vineyard is planted in 
shaded ground, a seed-plot is formed there as well; or, in 
other words, at the same time that the quickset is planted in 
the place which it is finally to t)ccupy, the mallet-shoot in- 
tended for transplanting is set between the vines, as well as 
between the rows. Ey adopting this method, each jugerum 
will produce about sixteen thousand quicksets ; and the result 
is, that two years' fruit is gained thereby, a cutting planted 
being two years later in bearing than a quickset transplanted. 
Quicksets, when growing in a vinej^-ard, are cut down at 
the end of a year, leaving only a single eye above ground ; 
more especially as it agrees with what has been previously said in this 
Chapter in reference to declivitous ground. 
17 De Re Rust. 40. 
1^ He differs somewhat in these measurements from Columella, 
iv. c. 11. 
