BOOK XVII. XXIV. 108-111 



waxing, and that both hands must be used in pressing 

 it home ; and apart from that, to use both hands at 

 once in this job requires less effort, as it involves 

 combining their forccs. Grafts pressed in too forcibly 

 are slower in bearing but last more stoutly, while the 

 contrary procedure has the opposite results. The 

 crack must not gape too wide and afFord a loose hold, 

 nor yet not wide enough, so as to squeeze the graft out 

 or to kill it by pressure ; special care must be taken 

 to avoid the latter in the trunk of a tree that takes the 

 graft with an excessively powerful hold. In order that 

 a cleft may be left in the middle, some people make 

 a Une of cleavage in the trunk with a pruning-hook 

 and bandajje the actual edee of the incision with a 

 withe, and afterwards force it apart ^dth a wedge, the 

 bandage kecping it from gaping open too freely. 

 Some slips are grafted on plants in a seed-plot 

 and then are transplanted on the same day. If a 

 rather thick stock is used for grafting, it is better to 

 insert it between the bark and the wood, after using 

 a wedge, preferably of bone, to loosen the bark, so as 

 not to break it. Cherrj^-trees have their inner rind re- 

 moved before the incision is made. They are the only 

 trees that are grafted even after midwinter. After 

 the bark has been removed they have a layer of a sort 

 of down, and if this gets a hold on the graft it makes it 

 decay. The most effective way of tightening the 

 bandage is by driving a wedge into it ; it suits best to 

 insert it as close to the ground as the formation of the 

 tree and the knots allows. Grafts ought not to 

 project to a length of more than six inches. 



Cato " recommends making a mixture of pounded 

 while clay or chalk and cowdung and so working it 

 to a sticky consistency, and putting this into the fissure 



77 



