BOOK XVII. xxx. 136 -xxxi. 130 



and chestnut, from March 1 to March 15 ; for the 

 willow and broom about March 1. The broom is 

 grown from secd in dry places and the willow from 

 a slip in damp localities, as we have statcd. xiv. 74, 77. 



There is moreover a new method of grafting — so arajnngby 

 that I may not wittingly pass over anything that I '"^'^'''"^- 

 have anvwhere discovered — devised by Columella." 

 as he himself states. for the purpose of effecting a 

 union even between trees of different natures and 

 not easily combined. for example figs and oHves. He 

 gives instructions to plaiit a fig-tree near to an oHve, 

 with not too wide a space between for the fig at fuU 

 spread to touch a branch of the olive, the most supple 

 and pHant branch possible being chosen, and all the 

 time during the process it must be trained by prac- 

 tice in curving : and afterwards, when the fig has 

 gained full strength, which he says is a matter of 

 three or at most five years, the top of it is cut otf 

 and the branch of the oHve is itself also pruned 

 and with its head shaved to a point in the way that 

 has been stated is inserted in the shank of the fig, § 115. 

 after having been secured with ties to prevent its 

 escaping because of the bend in it. In this way, he 

 says, by a sort of combination of layering and graft- 

 ing, in three years the brancli shared between the 

 two mother trees grows together, and in the fourth 

 year it is cut away and belongs entirely to the tree 

 that has adopted it ; this method however is not yet 

 generally known, or at all events I have not yet 

 obtained a complete account of it. 



XXXI. I""or the rest, the same account that has rrcncMng 

 becn given above about warm and cold and damp ^°""'' "'''" 

 and dry substances has also demonstrated the method 

 of trenching. In watery soils it will be suitable to 



97 



