514 
PLIKT*S NATURAL HISTORT. 
[Book XYII. 
not shoot at the place where it has been cut. As to the quick- 
sets, they ought to be removed directly after the vintage. 
In more recent times, a plan has been discoyered of planting 
a dragon branch near the tree — that being the name given to 
an old stock-branch that has become hard and tough in the 
course of years. For this purpose, it is cut as long as pos- 
sible, and the bark is taken off from three-fourths of its length, 
that being the portion which is to be buried in the ground ; 
hence it is, too, that it is called a barked" plant. It is 
then laid at full length in the furrow, the remaining part pro- 
truding from the ground and reclining against the tree. This 
method is the most speedy one that can be adopted for growing 
the vine. If the vine is meagre or the soil impoverished, it is 
usual to keep it cut down as near to the ground as possible, 
until such time as the root is strengthened. Care, too, should 
be taken not to plant it covered with dew,^ nor yet while the 
wdnd is blowing from the north. The vine itself ought to 
look towards the north-east, but the young stock-shoots should 
have a southern aspect. 
There should not be too great haste in pruning a young 
vine, but a beginning should be made by giving the wood and 
foliage a circular form, care being taken not to prune it until 
it has become quite strong ; it should be remembered, too, 
that the vine, when trained upon a tree, is generally a year 
later in bearing fruit than when grown on the cross-piece. 
There are some persons, again, who altogether forbid that a 
vine should be pruned until such time as it equals the tree in 
height. At the first pruning it may be cut to within six feet 
from the ground, below which a shoot must be left, and en- 
couraged to run out by bending the young wood. Upon this 
shoot, when pruned, there should not be more than three buds 
left. The branches that take their rise from these buds should 
be trained in the following year upon the lowermost stages of 
the tree, and so in each successive year taught to climb to the 
higher ones. Care, too, should always be taken to leave one 
hard, woody branch at each stage, as well as one breeding 
shoot, at liberty to mount as high as it pleases. In addition 
to these precautions, in all pruning, those shoots should be cut 
off which have borne fruit the last year, and after the ten- 
59 Easilis. so ColumeUa, B. v. c. 6. 
61 ColumeUa, B. v. c. 6. 
