except what we have been doing in Virginia with them. I have discussed
some of the results in the paper on pecan trees for planting in the
North.
* * * * *
President Morris: Committee appointments are as follows: Committee on
Competition, Messrs. Reed, Littlepage, and myself, _ex-officio_.
Committee on General Exhibits, Messrs. Barron and Roper. Committee on
Resolutions, Messrs. Reed, Littlepage, and Schempp. Committee on
Membership, Messrs. Deming, Lake, and Rush. Nominating Committee,
Professor Craig and Col. Van Duzee.
Professor Lake: Does that complete all the committees?
President Morris: That is all on the list here.
Professor Lake: I would like to suggest one, because I think it will
materially help the matter of bringing the nut subject before the people
in an effective manner,--a committee on score card. That is at the basis
of competitions, and when the nut grower gets acquainted with the score
card, and knows that is going to be the basis of judging the
competitions, he knows there is going to be something doing.
President Morris: That is a rather important point. I would like to have
the matter discussed.
Professor Craig: I think the idea is an excellent one. There is no way
in which we can analyze the qualities of fruit better than by having a
systematic method of discussing its different characters. The score card
does that,--separates each one and makes them stand for what they are
worth. In order to unify methods of judging used by the different
societies, a score card which this society might develop and recommend
would be a very valuable thing as a guide for nut growers here in the
Northeast. The National Nut Growers' Association has a score card for
pecans, and a score card has been recommended by the Department of
Agriculture. I am not sure that score cards have been provided for the
Persian walnut and for the hickories, and our northern types. I think
Mr. Lake's suggestion is entirely in order and well worthy of
consideration.
President Morris: It appeals to me at once. I think we would put Mr.
Lake and Professor Craig on a score card committee.
Professor Craig: I think a score card can be presented, subject to
revision, which will answer the present demand.
FRIDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 15, 1911.
President Morris: The meeting is called to order. The Secretary will
read the proposed amendments to the constitution. I believe there is no
provision in the by-laws for making such amendment. I don't know what
the customary rule is in the matter. I presume we could submit it to a
vote.
Doctor Deming: Under the heading "Committees," the following is
proposed: "The Association shall appoint standing committees of three
members each to consider and report on the following topics at each
annual meeting: first, on promising seedlings; second, on nomenclature;
third, on hybrids; fourth, on membership; fifth, on press and
publication."
Professor Craig: I move the adoption of this amendment to our
constitution. (Seconded. Carried.)
Doctor Deming: Under the head of "Meetings," the amendment is as
follows: "The Association shall hold an annual meeting, to be held at
the time and place to be selected by the Executive Committee."
Professor Lake: Some way or another, I feel that I oppose that attitude.
I believe a delegate will often go to a convention with the idea of
presenting views upon holding it at some specific place. It seems to me
we ought to give the annual meeting an opportunity to designate the
place of meeting. Some people say they will pack a convention. If they
are sufficiently enthusiastic to pack a convention they are entitled to
have the meeting. I have heard an expression from one or two members
that they would like to see it at a certain place. It is true they can
present their views to the Executive Committee, but if the Executive
Committee is not present at this place, it is necessary for them to make
another trip, or appeal to them by correspondence. I would like to have
that put in such a way that the annual meeting might select the place of
meeting.
President Morris: It is a matter for consideration. Is there any further
discussion on this point?
Doctor Deming: It seems to me that the question of the selection of the
meeting place is a matter for very deliberate consideration, and it
isn't always that a question of this kind will get deliberate
consideration in a meeting which acts very often without considering all
sides of the question. It seems to me that, while it would be advisable
to have the place of the next meeting discussed by the Association as a
whole, the decision as to the place of meeting might very safely be left
to the Executive Committee.
Mr. Littlepage: I think, as a general rule, it is pretty wise to give
some latitude in these matters, for the reason that conditions may
develop from time to time which make it desirable to have some
flexibility as to the place of meeting. I think, especially with the
able Executive Committee we now have, it could safely be left to the
Executive Committee.
Professor Craig: Since Professor Lake has spoken, I have a good deal of
sympathy with his attitude, and I am rather inclined to think it would
be wise to modify that clause in such a way as to give the meeting the
privilege, in case there was an overwhelming element in favor of a
certain place, of selecting the next place for the convention; and I
would suggest a modification of that clause to this effect, that the
place of meeting shall be selected at the annual meeting, or by the
Executive Committee subsequently thereto. That would give the membership
an opportunity of having a word in it, and would open the door so that
it could be considered at the annual meeting; but in the event of this
not taking place then, it would fall to the Executive Committee to
select the meeting place. I move that as an amendment to the proposed
clause.
Professor Lake: I support Professor Craig's motion.
Professor Craig: If my seconder will approve, I will offer that as a
substitute instead of an amendment.
Professor Lake: I accept it. (Carried.)
Doctor Deming: Under the head of "Officers," the following amendment is
proposed: "There shall be a president, a vice-president, a
secretary-treasurer, and an executive committee of five persons, of
which latter the president, vice-president, and secretary shall be
members, and a vice-president from each state represented in the
membership of the Association."
Professor Lake: I move that the clause be accepted.
Mr. Rush: I second the motion. (Carried.)
Doctor Deming: Under the heading of "Election of Officers," this
addition is proposed: "The President shall appoint a nominating
committee of three persons at the annual meeting, whose duty it shall
be to report to the meeting a list of officers for the ensuing year."
Professor Lake: I don't want to be an objector. I simply want to file a
protest against this method of election in an organization, on general
principles. I am opposed to anything that looks like continuing an
administration. This doesn't give an opportunity for election from the
floor. It might be so amended, that an annual meeting may elect from the
floor. I am thoroughly in sympathy with popular government. I have seen
a good deal of this, and I would like to get away from the sentiment of
anything of that kind by allowing nominations from the floor.
Doctor Deming: How would it be if the nominating committee, instead of
being appointed by the President, were appointed in some elective way by
the meeting as a whole?
Professor Lake: I accept Doctor Deming's suggestion. That is a most
excellent way of eliminating both sides of the controversy. I would like
to put that definitely into form, that we have a committee of
five,--that is sufficient for the present,--that a committee of five be
elected at the annual meeting for the purpose of nominating officers for
the subsequent year. I put that as a motion.
Mr. Rush: I second that motion. (Carried.)
President Morris: The committee for the nomination of new officers will
consist of Professor Craig and Colonel Van Duzee. This other committee
of five, as I understand it, is not to be appointed now.
Doctor Deming: The only thing that I have now is the proposition that we
honor Mr. Henry Hales by electing him an honorary member of the
Association. I would like to move that Mr. Henry Hales of Ridgewood, New
Jersey, be elected an honorary member of this Association.
Mr. Littlepage: I second that motion. (Carried.)
President Morris: On the competition, the committee consisted of Mr.
Reed, Mr. Littlepage, and myself. Mr. Littlepage has specimens in for
competition, and I will appoint Mr. Roper in his place. The next order
of business will be the paper on experiences in propagation, by
Professor Close.
THE BENCH ROOT-GRAFTING OF PERSIAN WALNUTS AND PECANS.
BY C. P. CLOSE, U. S. DEPT, OF AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON, D. C.
The results of my bench root-grafting of Persian walnuts and pecans at
the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station in 1911 were not as
satisfactory as might be wished, partly owing, at least, to the
unusually long and hot drought which was disastrous in many respects in
this section of the country.
PURPOSE AND METHOD OF THE EXPERIMENT.
The purpose of this experimental work was to devise some method of
procedure in the bench grafting of nut trees which would be reliable and
practical, especially if done during January, February, and March. The
whip or tongue method with variation in thinness of tongue to make
closely fitting unions, was employed. For the Persian walnut cions,
black walnut, butternut and Persian walnut roots were used, and for the
pecan cions, hardy Indiana and ordinary southern pecan seedlings, whole
root and piece root, were used. Part of the grafts were planted outdoors
in nursery rows as soon as made and part were placed in soil or decayed
sawdust in a cool greenhouse. This was for the purpose of determining
whether or not it would prove advantageous to go to the extra expense
and trouble of placing the grafts under greenhouse conditions until
April or May. Ground beds were used and thus bottom heat was not
applied.
PERSIAN WALNUTS.
There were 287 grafts of San Jose, Concord and Franquette Persian
walnuts, made from February 15 to April 4, which were planted in nursery
rows very soon after being made. Only 40 of these were alive in October,
the best results being obtained with San Jose on black walnut stocks.
Sixty-four walnut grafts were placed in decayed sawdust in the
greenhouse in February and March and of these 22 were alive early in May
when they were taken out.
PECANS.
The pecan grafts, set in nursery rows as soon as made, numbered 474 and
consisted of the following varieties: Mantura, Appomattox, Frotscher,
Moneymaker, Van Deman, Stuart, and Pabst. Only one of these, a Pabst on
a piece root, lived during the season.
The grafts which were placed in the greenhouse gave pretty good results
as shown by the following data given respectively under the headings
"Earth Bed" and "Decayed Sawdust."
EARTH BED.
Jan. 14. 10 Moneymaker on Indiana stocks, not waxed. 8 alive in May.
10 Moneymaker on Indiana stocks, waxed 4 alive in May.
Feb. 14. 10 Mantura on Indiana stocks, not waxed. 8 alive in May.
15 Moneymaker on Indiana stocks, not waxed. 11 alive in May.
Mar. 8. 33 Stuart on Indiana stocks, not waxed. 20 alive in May.
30 Stuart on Indiana piece roots, not waxed. 15 alive in May.
___ ___
Totals 108 66
DECAYED SAWDUST.
Feb. 14. 25 Mantura on Indiana stocks, not waxed. 6 alive in May.
Mar. 8. 12 Stuart on Indiana stocks, not waxed. 12 alive in May.
23 Stuart on Indiana stocks, not waxed. 21 alive in May.
___ ___
Totals 60 39
These figures show that 61 per cent of those in the earth bed and 65 per
cent of those in the decayed sawdust, were alive when they were taken up
early in May. Some had made a growth of from two to eight inches and
were fine little trees. Most of these transplanted grafts were set in
nursery rows and nearly all succumbed to the extreme drought of the
season.
CONCLUSIONS.
The season was so extremely dry that the practice of planting root
grafts as soon as made did not prove successful. However, work done in
other years indicated that in normal seasons this may be done with
considerable success. Placing the grafts in a greenhouse either in earth
or decayed sawdust gave encouraging results, but when transplanted in
the nursery the grafts could not withstand the unusually dry and hot
weather. The black walnut proved to be the best stock for the Persian
walnut and two buds to the cion are required. Grafting wax should not be
used if the union of cion and stock is to be covered with earth; this
point was clearly proven in previous years.
[The foregoing paper, read by title, was the subject of a verbal
report by Prof. Lake, who said further:]
Prof. Close performed considerable work in topgrafting and budding on
three and four year old stocks. The top grafts were a failure. The buds
survived, and were in good, strong condition October fifteenth. That was
on Persian walnut and pecan, about half and half.
Mr. Pomeroy: Did he bud on black walnut stock?
Professor Lake: Yes. It was a little higher than a man, and had been cut
back to about three feet. The crown grafting was fairly successful, but
would have been much more successful, had they used something to cover
the grafts.
Mr. Pomeroy: How long should the paper sack be left?
Professor Lake: It would vary with the season and activity of the stock,
ten days to two weeks.
President Morris: I wish you would try further experiments in rooting
scions in warm sand in the hot-house. I believe that in some stage you
can probably root those cuttings in moist sand in the hot-house, heated
beneath; and if you can do that, it is going to settle the question very
largely of hickory and walnut propagation. What do you think about that,
Professor Craig?
Professor Craig: I am not very optimistic about the possibility of that.
I find it very, very difficult to get roots to develop from _Hicoria_.
You can get the callus almost every time, but it is very difficult to
secure the development of roots afterwards.
President Morris: How about getting callus by three months, we will say,
in storage?
Professor Craig: We would have the same trouble. They would develop
adventitious buds very poorly. Doctor Morris has sent us from time to
time some samples, and we have been making experiments. I have used
different methods and different propagators. We have one propagator, who
has been most successful usually in striking difficult things, and he
has absolutely failed in this one. I may say that our facilities for
propagation are not ideal at the present time, but we shall have in a
short time a good propagating house with properly regulated benches, as
to bottom heat and overhead ventilation and all that; and we shall, of
course, keep up the experiments.
President Morris: In my experiments, I grafted hickory scions on hickory
roots, and the whole thing, root and scion, lived until the root sent
out adventitious buds, yet in that case we did not get union between the
top and the stock. How do you explain that, Professor Craig?
Professor Craig: I don't explain it.
President Morris: Are we likely to have success along that line by some
modification of the plan?
Professor Craig: I couldn't say. You can keep the cuttings alive for
three or four months.
President Morris: They were in damp rooms, exposed to light, right in
the window.
Doctor Deming: Professor Coville has made some experiments in rooting
hickory cuttings for me. Professor Coville is the one who has made such
a success of blueberry culture. I sent him some cuttings, and he reports
as follows:
"Two experiments were tried with the hickory cuttings received from Dr.
W. C. Deming on January 5, 1911. In one experiment some of the cuttings
were placed in a glass cutting bed in live sphagnum covered with sand,
the upper ends of the cuttings projecting from the sand. The atmosphere
above the cutting bed was kept in a state of saturation by a covering of
glass. The bed was kept shaded and was subjected to an ordinary living
room temperature varying from about 55 deg. to 70 deg., or occasionally a few
degrees higher.
On January 11 the cambium ring at the lower end of the cuttings had
begun to callus. On February 17 the upper bud on one of the cuttings
began to push. Later some of the other cuttings began to swell
preparatory to the development of new growth. All the cuttings, however,
finally died. It appeared from their behavior that the temperatures to
which they were subjected were too high for their best development.
In the other experiment the cuttings were placed in sand without
sphagnum in a greenhouse at a temperature ordinarily of 50 deg. to 65 deg.,
rising occasionally, however, on still, sunny days to 70 deg.. After a few
weeks, these cuttings were well callused and the buds began to swell
slowly, exposing first their green bracts, and later on some of the
cuttings the green compound leaves, pushing out from among the bracts.
These cuttings also, however, finally turned black and died, but not
until after the first of April.
The experiments showed that hickory cuttings, when taken at a suitable
time of year and exposed to conditions suited to other hard wooded
plants known to be difficult to root, retained their vitality and passed
satisfactorily through the stages preliminary to rooting. While no
actual roots were secured, the experiments suggest that the rooting of
hickory cuttings is not beyond the possibility of attainment.
As the basis of an experiment this winter, I suggest that you select
half a dozen twigs that you are willing to sacrifice on some good
variety of hickory, and remove a ring of bark at a distance of 4 to 8
inches from the top. The ring of bark removed should be about half an
inch in length and its upper end should come about a quarter of an inch
below a bud. At the present season the bark will not peel from the wood.
It will, therefore, be necessary to scrape it off, so as to leave
nothing but the wood on the girdled area. The bark should be cleanly cut
at each end of this area. I hope that we shall still have sufficient
warm weather to induce the formation of a callus on the cambium at the
upper end of this ring.
Later in the winter, some time in January, you can cut off these twigs
and send them to me, packed as those were last year. The cutting is
preferably made just below the ring. I would prefer that all the wood
from the ring to the tip of the twig be of the past summer's growth. We
can try, however, twigs containing two seasons' growth, if the others
are not easily available."
President Morris: That is a suggestion, you see, of apparent value,
because it has succeeded with blueberries,--this method of cutting off a
ring of bark before the leaves are shed, allowing a ring to callous,
then later cutting off this prepared twig and subjecting it to methods
for striking roots. It is an extremely interesting suggestion. Just as
soon as I heard of this procedure, I went out and prepared about fifty
hickory and walnut twigs myself, but that was this autumn, and I haven't
cut them yet for the experiments in rooting. Has anyone had experience
along this line?
Mr. Collins: I saw an experiment in rooting, and I am prompted to ask if
anything has been done along this particular line. The method employed
was this. The twig was partially cut from the branch, perhaps cut
three-quarters of the way through with a slanting cut. It was then bent
a little, and a little sphagnum put in the cut, then a ball of sphagnum
was wrapped about the whole cut area, and it was tied with twine, and
that was kept wet for several months, I think, until, finally, new roots
pushed through and appeared on the outside of this ball of sphagnum.
President Morris: I read of that. It was published in a government
report.
Professor Collins: It was on the rubber plant.
President Morris: I tried it at that time on the hickory. The difficulty
was in getting my men sufficiently interested to keep the sphagnum wet
all the time. It promised something. The rubber plants, perhaps, would
lend themselves more readily to such a procedure than the hickories,
because most of the rubber plants are air plants, anyway. All of the
_Ficus_ family depend so little upon the ground for their nourishment.
Professor Collins: I have seen that worked very successfully.
Professor Lake: You don't know how successful the callousing has been?
President Morris: They calloused all right.
Professor Lake: How long did it require?
President Morris: I don't remember. It was a good while, longer than I
anticipated. I don't think there was a callus on the hickory in less
than thirty days. The butternut and black walnut hardly showed any
callus at all after keeping the sphagnum wet as long as my men would do
it.
Professor Lake: At what time was the ringing done?
President Morris: The leaves had fallen this year. Professor Coville
suggested that it be done before the leaves had fallen. But the hickory
will callous after the leaves have fallen. It seems to me hickories are
at work all winter long. They have a free flow of sap in January, and
any warm day in January they will be like a maple tree, almost, if they
are cut. I have grafted them at that time.
Mr. Brown: Can anyone give me any information on grafting chestnuts?
Mr. Rush: I have been very successful with the grafting of the chestnut.
It is just as simple as grafting other fruit, except the Persian walnut.
Tongue grafting and cleft grafting is very successful. There is no
particular secret in connection with grafting chestnuts.
President Morris: Personally, I found it difficult for two or three
years, but now I can graft the chestnut about as readily as I can graft
the apple. There is no difference in methods. It seems to me from my
present experience that one may graft or bud chestnut by almost any of
the accepted methods pretty freely. What has been your experience, Mr.
Littlepage?
Mr. Littlepage: I haven't been experimenting with the propagation of the
chestnut yet. I am getting ready. I have three or four thousand
seedlings, a few of which will be ready to graft next year. I have
twenty acres of the Paragon chestnuts growing.
President Morris: In chestnut grafting, we will find that one kind does
not graft or bud readily upon another kind, perhaps. For instance, there
is some antagonism between the American sweet chestnut and Asiatic
chestnuts. There is some antagonism between Asiatic and Europeans; there
is little between Europeans and American sweet. These antagonisms are
something that one has to learn from experience at the present time,
because I doubt if we have had enough experience to know just where we
stand on this question.
Professor Collins: Doesn't there seem to be antagonism between eastern
Asiatic other than Japanese and Japanese?
President Morris: Yes; the Koreans of both kinds, the north Japanese of
both kinds, and the Manchurian chestnut are the five that I have
experimented with in grafting, and none of those grow so well on
American stock as they should.
Professor Collins: I mean to say between the Korean and the Japanese.
President Morris: There is less antagonism. You can graft the Korean
upon the Japanese and the Japanese upon the Korean very readily. They
have very much the same texture of wood, the same character of buds and
bark.
Professor Collins: Is there any antagonism between eastern Asian and
Japanese?
President Morris: I don't know that my experience has been extensive
enough to say. My men have put on perhaps two or three hundred grafts
back and forth between these kinds, the customary accidents have
happened, and we have about given up trying to do much grafting of
Japanese on American, but still plan to graft Japanese back and forth
upon each other, and we are now planning to graft European and American
back and forth upon each other.
Mr. Brown: What about the position of the graft?
President Morris: I don't know, Mr. Brown, if there is very much
difference. I haven't found very much. I have grafted all the way from
the root to the top.