ly. If one obtains the material for his
trellises from his own land, the expense of maintaining that kind
of vineyard is negligible, nor is it burdensome if the material is
procured from the neighbourhood. Such trellis material, as has been
described, can be grown at home by planting willows, reeds and rushes,
or some thing of that kind; but if you propose to rely on the vines to
form their own trellis, then you must plant an _arbustum_ where the
vines can be trained on trees, such as maples, which the inhabitants
of Mediolanum use for that purpose; or fig trees, on which the people
of Canusium train their vines. Likewise there are four kinds of props
used for the cultivation of unwedded vines; first, the planted post,
which is called _ridicum_ and is best when fashioned out of oak or
juniper; second, poles cut in the swamp, and the more seasoned they
are the longer they will last, but it is the practice to reset them
upside down when they rot out in the ground; third, for lack of some
thing better, a bundle of reeds tied together and thrust into a
pointed tube of baked clay, which is then planted in the ground and
serves to preserve the reeds from water rot; the fourth is what may be
called the natural prop, when vines are swung from tree to tree. Vines
should be trained to the height of a man and the interval between the
props should be sufficient to give room for a yoke of oxen to plough.
The least expensive kind of a vineyard is that which brings wine to
the jug without the aid of any sort of prop. There are two of this
kind, one in which the earth serves as a bed for the grapes, as in
many places in Asia, and where usually the foxes share the crop with
man;[64] or, if mice appear, it is they who make the vintage, unless
you put a mouse trap in every vine, as they do on the island of
Pandataria. The other kind of vineyard, is that where each shoot which
promises to bear grapes is lifted from the earth and supported about
two feet off the ground by a forked stick: by this means the grapes,
as they form, learn to hang as it were from a branch and do not have
to be taught after the vintage; they are held in place with a bit of
cord or by that kind of tie which the ancients called a _cestus_. As
soon as the farmer sees the vintagers turn their backs he carries
these props under cover for the winter so that he may use them another
year without expense for that account. In Italy the people of Reate
practise this custom.