091r - - - - - Grafting
Any tree that has a large pith will be hard to be graft from, because the cutting is difficult to remove. If the pith is damaged, the graft will take in an unstraight manner, like with vines of all peach and apricot trees.
Apricot trees have a very thin bark, and so it is necessary to graft them onto young trees whose own bark is not thick yet, such as the young shoots of prune trees or apricot trees.
The graft will not take if the cutting gets wet. It is necessary therefore to graft in serein and mild weather, not too cold and not too windy.
One must use old wood to graft, if one wants to graft on a tree that is already mature and quite big; because if this is the case, it will compress the cutting, and if the cutting is of young wood, it will not grow properly. But old wood resists the compression of old wood better than the young, because it is harder than young wood. But if the graft is done with only old wood, it will never grow beautifully, but will be frail and short and will take a long time to grow.
Molding with cuttlefish bone
Guard against keeping them in a damp place, for they are well prone to getting moist. If your medal is small, cut the bone in two then even it out with a knife. And on a hooked rooftile, well dry &well smooth & covered with pulverized willow charcoal, rub & smooth the two half bones. Thus they absorb this willow charcoal, which makes them release them, guard against removing anything. Then on a counter bone, that is to say a lump of brick, smoothed to the size of your bone, place your medal, & then on this one, place the bone, & press well with some other piece of the same size above. And for the second time, mold it, but before, ponce on top with willow charcoal & blow gently, then press as before, and it will come out neatly. If it is for a spoon handle, one needs two whole bones. All cast work is brittle & subject to breaking, because the metal expands when cast, & retracts & condenses when hammered. That is why, one ought to retrace the cast thing with a chisel, & in this way the metal retracts, and let it thus escrouir. If the piece for molding is of high relief, first trace the mold & the cavity with a pen—knife, to make way for the medal & then mold. And if the medal has two sides
at left bottom margin
Before casting, heat the bones in order to make them lose only the coldness & dampness.
at left bottom margin
When the lead gets too hot, it calcines.
[continued]