BOOK IV. xxi.x. 14-17 



may devote itself to a vine of different origin. 

 However, this is not done in the case of a traverse 

 shoot, which is nourished at its mother's breast until 

 it grows into the other vine. 



But there is one type of iron tool with which our 15 

 ancestors used to bore through the vine," and a 

 different sort which I myself have now found by ex- 

 perience to be more suitable. For the ancient gim- 

 let — the only kind that old-time farmers knew — 

 would make sawdust and would burn the place which 

 it perforated. Moreover, it was seldom that the 

 burned part would revive or unite with the former 

 and that the grafted scion would take hold. Then, 

 too, the sawdust was never so completely removed 

 that some did not remain in the hole ; and this, by its 

 intervention, kept the body of the scion from being 

 closely joined to the body of the vine. We, having 16 

 devised what we call the " Gallic auger " * for this kind 

 of grafting, have found it far more suitable and prac- 

 tical. For it hollows out the stock in such a way as 

 not to burn the hole, because it does not make dust 

 but shavings ; and when these are removed a smooth 

 wound is left, which can more easily touch the seated 

 scion on every side, since there is no interference of 

 that woolly matter which the ancient gimlet produced. 

 [Therefore see to it that the grafting of your vines is 17 

 finished immediately after the vernal equinox ; and 

 graft the black vine in places that are parched and 

 dry, the white vine in wet places.]'^ [And there is no 



" C/.Cato, 41.3-4. 



^ Cf. De Arb. 8. 4; Pliny, loc. cit. ; Palladius, loc. cit. 



' The passage is bracketed by Schneider as irrelevant at this 

 point, perhaps having crept in from De Arb. {loc. cit.), where 

 an almost identical statement follows the description of the 

 Gallic wimble. 



447 



