the best season to propagate figs.  On the other hand it is the custom to tie a pot of water above a graft of hard wood trees so that it may drip on the graft and prevent the scion from drying up before it has been incorporated with the stock.  Care must be taken that the bark of the scion is kept intact, and to that end it should be sharpened but so that the pith (medulla) is not exposed.  To prevent the rain or the heat from injuring it from without, it should be smeared with clay and bound with bark.  It is customary to take off the scion of a vine three days before it is to be grafted so that the superfluity of moisture may drain out before the scion is inserted, or, if the graft is already in place, an incision is made in the stock a little below the graft from which the adventitious moisture may drain off:  but this is not done with figs and pomegranates, for in all trees of a comparatively dry nature the graft is made immediately.  Indeed, some trees, like the fig, are best grafted when the scion is in bud.

Of the four kinds of propagation which I have discussed, that of graftage is preferred in respect of those trees which, like the fig, are slow in developing:  for the natural seeds of the fig are those grains seen in the fruit we eat and are so small as scarcely to be capable of sprouting the slenderest shoots.  For all seeds which are small and hard are slow in germinating, while those which are soft are more spontaneous, just as girls grow faster than boys.  Thus by reason of their feminine tenderness the fig, the pomegranate and the vine are quicker to mature than the palm, the cypress and the olive, which are rather dry than humid by nature.  Wherefore we some times propagate figs in nurseries from cuttings rather than attempt to raise them from seed:  unless there is no other way to secure them, as happens when one wishes to send or receive seed across the sea.  For this purpose the ripe figs which we eat are strung together and when they have dried out are packed and shipped wheresoever we wish, and thereafter being planted in a nursery they germinate.  In this way the Chian, the Chalcidian, the Lydian, the African and other foreign varieties of figs were imported into Italy.

For the same reason olives are usually propagated in nurseries from truncheons such as I have described, rather than from its seed, which is hard like a nut and slow to germinate.

Of seeding alfalfa

XLII.  You should take care not to plant alfalfa[93] in soil which is either too dry or half wet,[94] but in good order.  The authorities say that if the soil is in proper condition a modius (peck) and a half of alfalfa seed will suffice to sow a jugerum of land.  This seed is sowed broad-cast on the land like grass and grain.

Of seeding clover and cabbage

XLIII.  Snail clover (cytisus) and cabbage is sowed in beds well prepared and is transplanted from them and set out so that the plants are a foot and a half apart, also cuttings are taken from the stronger plants and set out like those which were raised from seed.