North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Thomas Olenio" <tolenio@sentex.net>]

On Sat, 02 Sep 2006 07:38:09 -0400, Bassem Samaan <bassem@gardener.com>  
wrote:

> Grafting goes back thousands of years, and have been mentioned in Romans
> chapter 11,

Hi,

Ancient Roman texts, preceeding the new testament of the Bible indicated  
that grafting was ancient then.

        Columella

        Pliny

        Cato

=======
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cato/De_Agricultura/A*.html

..."Figs, olives, apples, pears, and vines should be grafted in the dark  
of the moon, after noon, when the south wind is not blowing. The following  
is a good method of grafting olives, figs, p59 pears or apples: 2Cut the  
end of the branch you are going to graft, slope it a bit so that the water  
will run off, and in cutting be careful not to tear the bark. Get you a  
hard stick and sharpen the end, and split a Greek willow. Mix clay or  
chalk, a little sand, and cattle dung, and knead them thoroughly so as to  
make a very sticky mass. Take your split willow and tie it around the cut  
branch to keep the bark from splitting. 3When you have done this, drive  
the sharpened stick between the bark and the wood two finger-tips deep.  
Then take your shoot, whatever variety you wish to graft, and sharpen the  
end obliquely for a distance of two finger-tips; take out the dry stick  
which you have driven in and drive in the shoot you wish to graft. Fit  
bark to bark, and drive it in to the end of the slope. In the same way you  
may graft a second, a third, a fourth shoot, as many varieties as you  
please. 4Wrap the Greek willow thicker, smear the stock with the kneaded  
mixture three fingers deep, and cover the whole with ox-tongue,53 so that  
if it rains the water will not soak into the bark; this ox-tongue must be  
tied with bark to keep it from falling off. Finally, wrap it in straw and  
bind tightly, to keep the cold from injuring it.

41 Vine grafting may be done in the spring or when the vine flowers, the  
former time being best. Pears and apples may be grafted during the spring,  
for fifty days at the time of the summer solstice, and during the vintage;  
2olives and figs should be grafted during the spring. Graft the vine as  
follows: Cut off the stem you are grafting, and split
p61 the middle through the pith; in it insert the sharpened shoots you are  
grafting, fitting pith to pith. A second method is: If the vines touch  
each other, cut the ends of a young shoot of each obliquely, and tie pith  
to pith with bark. 3A third method is: With an awl bore a hole through the  
vine which you are grafting, and fit tightly to the pith two vine shoots  
of whatever variety you wish, cut obliquely. Join pith to pith, and fit  
them into the perforation, one on each side.54 4Have these shoots each two  
feet long; drop them to the ground and bend them back toward the vine  
stock, fastening the middle of the vine to the ground with forked sticks  
and covering with dirt. Smear all these with the kneaded mixture, tie them  
up and protect them in the way I have described for olives.

42 Another method of grafting figs and olives is: Remove with a knife the  
bark from any variety of fig or olive you wish, and take off a piece of  
bark containing a bud of any variety of fig you wish to graft. Apply it to  
the place you have cleared on the other variety, and make it fit. The bark  
should be three and a half fingers long and three fingers wide. Smear and  
protect as in the other operation."....

Later,
Tom


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