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28 inches broad; the whole of that country producing vines of a prodigious growth. Such another in Margiana, is spoken of by Strabo, that was twelve feet in circumference, and Pliny mentions one of 600 years old in his time.

Vines of such an age and stature, may form an attraction to the naturalist, and the traveller may forget his weariness in the bowers formed by their intermarriage with the olive, but the wine which is best calculated to make glad his heart, is the production of a stinted shrub, and a meagre soil.

Accordingly, the cultivation of the best vineyards is directed, not only to reduce the luxuriance of the plant, but to allow that which remains a scanty nourishment, and to suffer it to bear only such a quantity of fruit, as it is found capable of elaborating to the highest degree of perfection.

The practical details by which the principles established in the foregoing pages, are applied in pursuance of this object, form the subject to be treated of in a succeeding chapter.