105v - - - - - [continued]
Then, when the graft has taken hold, cut the top of the tree, which is above your tree, three or four fingers above the graft for the first time. Then, closer so that it serves. But be advised that when you do your initial grafting there should be no small hole at the back of your sprout, because this means that root is broken and your graft will never take. Therefore make sure the back is in tact. This type of grafting can be done from mid—May onwards, because the trees have budded and made new growth, until the beginning of August when the trees are full of sap. Almond trees which are naturally drier lose their sap earlier. Those who want to graft onto them the almond trees mericotons, apricots and nut—tree grafts, which are the best, should do so usually in January. Nut trees, such as perches mericotons should be grafted en fente. It is said that trees graft by the shield—graft method take longer to bear fruit.
Gardening
It’s not very strange to cultivate in your garden some arnols, because when your soup or broth goes cold, you get worms.
fountain
Recooked plaster runs when mixed with water, which you will see in the next recipe about wet molds. When put on the joints of the fountain conduits, it resists as much as any stucco.
Catching nightingales See the 15th folio
after this.
In order to catch them, you must observe them in real life, the food that they favor and their mating season. The nightingale, as long as he is singing, marks his own territory. Therefore approach him by pretending to look for something on the ground. Take some worms from old flour or from beneath what you are kneading or from mills, which nightingales love, and put some on your hat, fastened with a pin or in any other way, so that it can wiggle. And five or six steps away from the hedge where it is singing, dig a hole, and place some worms in it, as well as your device made out of little criss—crossed sticks. As soon as you leave it will be anxious to go and see what you have done. And seeing worms it will enter.
at left bottom margin
Some people sell nightingales on trees.
at left bottom margin
It is easier to catch nightingales in the cool of the morning or evening, near fountains or shaded areas.
Nightingale
The iron wire used for its cage must be the thickest possible, so that should it try to leave, it will not hurt itself. At the beginning of its captivity cover its cage in fabric. The first day you will have to forcibly feed it, moving it from its cage in your hand and opening its beak and with a small wooden needle, place its food in its throat and make it swallow. And continue to do so until it is no longer willful. You must do this to keep it alive, because should it become thin or lose weight it will die.
Nightingale
It will need a cage made in the shape of a barn, like the ones for larks, lined with green fabric, because it feels the cold. And to get it to eat when it is first put in the cage, you must give it ants mixed with earth in the bottom of the cage to get it used to pecking, and you can give it minced sheep’s heart, and sometimes eggs, and sometimes mealworm.