Unfortunately for the nation, this grandmother's guidance led Shah Hussein to ruin by wine and women, and dragged him down to the deep degradation of surrendering Persia to the cruel tyranny of the Afghan occupation.
Wood being scarce in Persia, and poles, stakes, and sticks for upright and lateral support not being easily procurable, the mode of culture of the vine has come to be by planting in deep broad trenches, with high sloping banks, up and over which the stems and branches run and fall.
The trenches are made to lie so as to allow of the bank-slopes having the best exposure.

This is the system followed on the flat, but in hilly ground, by means of careful trimming and the assistance of piled stones, the plants are made to develop strong standard stems, with bunchy, bushy tops.

I was particularly struck a few years ago with the neat, well-tended vineyards at the village of Imam-Zadeh-Ismail, in the hills about forty miles north-west of Persepolis.

Almost the whole of the village lands were laid out in vineyards, well walled and beautifully kept.

The vines looked as if they were tended by those who understood their culture well, and they appeared to thrive wonderfully on the light soil of the place.