BOOK V. X. 20-xi. I 



The carob-tree, which some people called Ceration,"^ and 

 the peach-tree you should plant during the autumn 

 before winter comes. If an almond is not productive 

 enough, make a hole in the tree and drive in a stone 

 and so allow the bark of the tree to grow over. 



It is proper to plant out the branches of all kinds of 21 

 fruit trees about March 1st in gardens on raised beds 

 after the soil has been well worked and manured. 

 Care must be taken to trim them while the little 

 branches are young and tender and in the first year 

 the seedlings should be reduced to a single stem. 

 When autumn has come on, before the cold nips the 

 tops, it is well to strip off all the foliage and to cover 

 the trees with caps, as it were, of thick reeds which 22 

 have their knots intact on one side, and thus protect 

 the still tender rods from cold and frosts. Then 

 after twenty-four months you will be able quite safely 

 to do whichever you wish of two things — either to 

 transplant and arrange them in rows or else to en- 

 graft them. 



XI. Any kind of scion can be grafted on any tree, The graft- 

 if it is not dissimilar in respect of bark to the tree in t"fes. 

 which it is grafted ; indeed if it also bears similar 

 fruit and at the same season, it can perfectly well 

 be grafted without any scruple. Further, the 

 ancients have handed down to us three kinds of 

 grafting ; one in which the tree, which has been cut 

 and cleft, receives the scions which have been cut; 

 the second, in which the tree having been cut admits 



" Kepdriov, which is found in the same sense as here in an in- 

 scription at Abydos {O.G.I. , 5. 21. 27), is used in Luke XV. 16 of 

 the " husks " eaten by the Prodigal Son. The name is no doubt 

 due to the shape of carob-nuts, which Pliny {N.H. XV. § 95) 

 describes as " sometimes curved like a sickle." 



lOI 



