The history of the Old World grape goes back to prehistoric times. Seeds of the grape are found in the remains of the Swiss lake dwellings of the Bronze Period and entombed with the mummies of Egypt. Its printed history is as old as that of man and is interwritten with it. According to the botanists, the probable habitat of _Vitis vinifera_ is the region about the Caspian Sea.[1] From here it was carried eastward into Asia and westward into Europe and Africa. It is probable that the Phoenicians, the earliest navigators, tradesmen and colonizers on the Mediterranean, carried it to the countries bordering on this sea. Grape culture was developed in this region a thousand years before Christ, for Hesiod, who wrote at this time, gave directions for the care of the vine which need to be changed but little for present practice in Europe. Pliny, writing a thousand years after, quotes Hesiod as an authority on vine culture. Vergil and Pliny, during Christ's time, gave specific directions for the care of the vine. Vergil describes fifteen varieties while Pliny gives even fuller descriptions of ninety-one varieties and distinguishes fifty kinds of wine. The authentic written history of the grape and of its culture really begins with Vergil. Many other writers, Greeks and Romans, had discussed the vine, but none so fully nor so well as Vergil in his Georgics, of which the parts having to do with the vine may still be read with profit by the grape-grower; as, for example, the following[2] in which he tells how to cultivate and train:-- "Be mindful, when thou hast entomb'd the shoot, With store of earth around to feed the root; With iron teeth of rakes and prongs, to move The crusted earth, and loosen it above. Then exercise thy sturdy steers to plow Between thy vines, and teach the feeble row To mount on reeds, and wands, and, upward led, On ashen poles to raise their forky head, On these new crutches let them learn to walk, 'Till, swerving upwards with a stronger stalk, They brave the winds, and, clinging to their guide, On tops of elms at length triumphant ride."[3] His directions for pruning are equally fitting for present practice:-- "But in their tender nonage, while they spread Their springing leaves, and lift their infant head, And upward while they shoot in open air, Indulge their childhood, and the nurslings spare; Nor exercise thy rage on new-born life; But let thy hand supply the pruning knife, And crop luxuriant stragglers, nor be loth To strip the branches of their leafy growth. But when the rooted vines with steady hold Can clasp their elms, then, husbandman, be bold To lop the disobedient boughs, that strayed Beyond their ranks; let crooked steel invade The lawless troops, which discipline disclaim, And their surperfluous growth with rigor tame."