Historic vine cultivation

38. It is said that the browsing of a goat gave the first idea of pruning the vine; as chance, which had set fire to a rose tree, according to Acosta (Histoire Nat. des Indes), gave the first idea of pruning the rose. Theophrastus informs us that fire was applied to the rose trees in Greece to enrich them, and that without that precaution they would bear no flowers.