BOOK III. xvin. 4-6 



have avoided in not planting the arrow, v.e comply 

 with in the case of a mallet-cutting of this sort, which 

 we must make longer if we wish to plant it twisted. 

 Nor is there any doubt that the buds next to the tip, 

 which are unfruitful, are left on it ; from which sprout 

 young shoots, either barren or at least less fruitful, 

 which farmers call racemarii. And furthermore, it 5 

 is of the greatest importance that a cutting which is 

 set in the ground should heal over and quickly form 

 a callus at the point where it is cut from the mother 

 vine. For, if this does not happen, excessive 

 moisture is dra-\\Ti up through the open pith of the 

 vine, as though through a tube, and makes the stock 

 hollow ; and the result is that hiding-places are 

 provided for ants and other creatures that cause 

 the lower part of the vine-stalk to rot. And this 

 also happens when plants are bent back ; for when 

 their lower sections are broken in taking them up, 

 they are planted with the pith exposed ; and when 

 water and the aforementioned animals creep into 

 them, they soon waste away. Therefore the best 6 

 method is to plant a straight cutting, whose butt 

 end, when caught in the two prongs of the trench- 

 ing- fork, is easily held in the narrow jaws of the 

 implement and so thrust into the ground ; and a 

 cutting that is set in this way heals over sooner. 

 For it puts out roots from the butt, where it was 

 cut off, and these cover the callus as they grow ; 

 and, besides, the wound itself, looking downwards, 

 does not admit as much moisture as the one which, 

 being bent back and facing upwards, conveys through 

 its pith, as though through a funnel, all the rains that 

 fall upon it. 



* superfluit cM, et vulgo ante Schn. 



333 



