Footnote 1514: Geop. v. 24. ----- The ground having remained in this state during a whole year, its surface was levelled, and a series of shallow furrows traced for the slips by line, rather close, on rich alluvial plains, but diverging more and more[1515] in proportion to the elevation of the site. Generally the vine was propagated by slips of moderate length, planted sometimes upright or à l’aiguille,[1516] as the phrase is in Languedoc, sometimes obliquely,[1517] which was generally supposed to be the better fashion. Along with the slip a handfull of grape-stones was usually cast into the furrow,[1518] those of the green grape with the purple vine, and those of the purple with the green, in order to cause it the sooner to take root. With some the practice was always to set two slips together, so that if one missed the other might take, and when both grew, the weaker was cut off or removed. Several stones,[1519] about the size of the fist, were placed round the slip above whatever manure was used, the belief being, that they would aid in preventing the root from being scorched by the sun in the heats of summer.[1520] Some touched the lower point of the slip with cedar oil which prevented it from decaying, and likewise by its odour repelled vermin. ----- Footnote 1515: Virg. Georg. ii. 274, seq. Footnote 1516: Skippon in Churchill, Collection of Voyages, vi. 730. Footnote 1517: Πότερα δὲ ὅλον τὸ κλῆμα ὀρθὸν τιθεὶς πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν βλέπον ἡγῇ μάλλον ἂν ῥιζοῦσθαι αὐτὸ, ἢ καὶ πλάγιόν τι ὑπὸ τῇ ὑποβεβλημένη γῇ θείης ἂν, ὥστε κεῖσθαι ὥσπερ γάμμα ὕπτιον; οὕτω νὴ Δία· πλείονες γὰρ ἂν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ κατὰ γῆς εἶεν· ἐκ δὲ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν καὶ ἄνω ὁρῶ βλαστάνοντα τὰ φυτὰ. Xenoph. Œconom. xix. 9, seq. Footnote 1518: Geop. v. 9. This practice is noticed by Lord Bacon who advises gardeners to extend the experiment by laying “good store” of other kernels about the roots of trees of the same kind. Sylva Sylvarum, i. 35. Footnote 1519: Virg. Georg. ii. 348. Footnote 1520: A similar remark is made by Lord Bacon: “It is an assured experience,” he says, “that an heap of flint or stone laid about the bottom of a wild tree, as an oak, elm, ash, &c., upon the first planting, doth make it prosper double as much as without it. The cause is for that it retaineth the moisture which falleth at any time upon the tree and suffereth it not to be exhaled by the sun.” Sylva Sylvarum, 422. -----