The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

EXCDESUS II, 681
care was bestowed on the planting and management of them. Their
nsnal height was from thirty to forty feet, but in warm climates they were
allowed to grow much higherj and, if we may credit Florentinus, there
were, in some parts of Bithynia, vines trained in this manner npon trees
sixty feet high, which, far from experiencing any degeneracy, only produced
so much the better wine.' It is, however, admitted, that it wa»
only in very rich soils that such a practice was allowable, and that in poor
lands it was advisable to form the trees into pollards, at the height of eight
feet from the ground ; and Columella assigns from eight to twelve feet as
the usual height of such plantations ia Gaul."
If we rely on the accounts which are given of the success attending thisr
mode of training, we must believe that it was not only the most convenient
and the most productive, but that the wine obtained from grapes so raised
was improved in quality, and was sweeter and more lasting than any other
kind. CSlto recommends that the vine should be forced as high as possible,
" quam alHssimam vineam facito ;" Pliny even goes the length of
asserting that fine vines oould only be grown in this manner, "nobilia
vina non nisi in arimstis g-igni ;"3 and Columella agrees with him in de
scribing the produce of the loftiest trees as the best.* But, on the other
hand, it ia acknowledged by the natural historian that this practice was
unequivocally condemned by Sasema, the father and son, both celebrated
writers on husbandry ;
and that, although it was approved by SoroSa, yet
he was disposed to limit its application to the vines of Italy ; and, in describing
the remarkable vines of his time, the same author gives an anecdote
of Oineas, the ambassador of Pyrrhns, who, on being shown the lofty
elms on which the Arician vines grew, remarked that it was no wonder
the wine was so harsh, since its parent was hung on so high a gibbet
" merito matrem ejus peiidere in tarn alta cruce."^ When, therefore, wo
find that such contradictory opinions prevailed with regard to the benefits
of this mode of culture, and know that it is completely at variance with
the more approved practice of modem times, we may infer that the advo
cates of the system were misled by their desire to obtain abundant crops,
or by some accidental circumstances connected with the method in qnes
tion, as, for instance, the freer exposure which would be afforded to the
uppermost branobeg, and which would certainly promote the full ripening
of the firuit.
EXCURSUS II.
VARIETIES OF AITCIENT TINES.
The varieties of the vine known to the ancients were very numerous.
Columella and Pliny mention about fifty sorts, some of which they describe
with sufficient minuteness to enable -us to appreciate the relation in which
they stand to our modem vines. Since those authors compiled their ac-
couuti indeed, not only the names have been, for the most part, altered,
but the plants themselves have in all probability undergone a considerable
change, from the effects of culture and transplantation, and we can not
expect to recognize every species which they enumerate. If thefgarnet
1. Geoponica, iv., 1. 2. De Re Rustica, v., 7. 3. Hist Nat,4vii., 23.
4. Lit v, ft 5. Ub. SlVi, 1.
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