BOOK XVII. XXV. 117-X.XV1. 119 



The rest depends on the weather: dry weather is 

 most favourable for grafts, because a remedy for its 

 ill effects is to place earthenware pots of ashes on 

 the stock and let a small amount of water lilter 

 through the ashes ; but grafting by inoculation Ukes 

 a Hght fall of dew. 



XXVI. Scutcheon grafting may itself also be scuiefienn 

 thought to have sprung from grafting by inoculation, srafttng. 

 but It is most suited to a thick bark, such as that of 

 fig-trees. The procedure is to prune all the branches 

 so that they may not attract the sap, and then, at 

 the most flourishing part of the tree and where it 

 displays exceptional luxuriance, to remove a scut- 

 cheon, without allowing thc knife to penetrate below 

 the bark ; and then to take a piece of bark of equal 

 size from another tree, together with a protuberant 

 bud, and press it into the place, fitting the join so 

 closely that there is no room for a scar to form and a 

 single substance is produced straight away, imper- 

 vious to damp and to air — though all the same it is 

 better to protect the splice by plastering it with mud 

 and tying it with a bandage. People in favour of 

 modern fashions make out that this kind of grafting 

 was only recently invented, but it is found already 

 in the old Greek writers and in Cato, who prescribed XLil. 

 this method of grafting for the oUve and the fig, in 

 conformity with his invariable precision actuaUy defin- 

 ing the proper measurement : he says that a piece 

 of bark four inches long and three wide should be 

 cut out with a knife, and so fitted to its place and 

 smeared with that pounded mixture of his described 

 above, in the same way as in grafting an apple. In § m. 

 the case of vines some people have combined with 

 this kind of grafting the fissure method, removing a 



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