BOOK V. XI. 1-4 



grafts between the bark and the hard wood (both 

 these methods belong to the season of spring) ; and 

 the third, when the tree receives actual buds with a 

 little bark into a part of it which has been stripped 

 of the bark. The last kind the husbandmen call 

 emplastration * or, according to some, inoculation.* 

 This type of grafting is best employed in the summer. 

 When we have imparted the method of these graft- 

 ings, we will also set forth another which we have 

 discovered. 



You should engraft all other trees as soon as they 

 begin to put forth buds and when the moon is 

 waxing, but the olive-tree about the spring equinox 

 and until April 13th. See that the tree from which 

 you intend to graft and are going to take scions for 

 insertion is young and fruitful and has frequent 

 knots and, as soon as the buds begin to swell, choose 

 from among the small branches which are a year old 

 those which face the sun's rising and are sound and 

 have the thickness of the little finger. The scions 

 should have two or three points. You should cut 

 the tree into which you wish to insert the scion care- 

 fully with a saw in the part which is most healthy 

 and free from scars, and you will take care not to 

 damage the bark. Then, when you have cut away 

 part of the trunk, smooth over the wound with a sharp 

 iron instrument ; then put a kind of thin wedge of 

 iron or bone between the bark and the firm-wood to 

 a depth of not less than three inches, but do so care- 

 fully so as not to damage or break the bark. After- 

 wards with a sharp pruning-knife pare down the 

 scions which you wish to insert, at their bottom end 



' Because an " eye " or bud is taken from one tree and 

 inserted in another. 



103 



