CHAP. 23.—INOCULATION OR BUDDING.
In this, too, the art of inoculating [Note] took its rise. By the
aid of an instrument similar to a shoe-maker's paring-knife
an eye is opened in a tree by paring away the bark, and
another bud is then enclosed in it, that has been previously removed with the same instrument from another tree. This was the
ancient mode of inoculation with the fig and the apple. That
again, described by Virgil, [Note] requires a slight fissure to be
made in the knot of a bud which has burst through the bark,
and in this is enclosed a bud taken from another tree. Thus
far has Nature been our instructor in these matters.