Dr. Robert T. Morris[10], writing in the American Nut Journal in 1929,
advocates the use of paraffin to cover walnut grafts instead of wax.
Both he and Dr. J. Russell Smith[15] credit Mr. J. Ford Wilkinson with
first using paraffin instead of wax on walnut grafts. Mr. Wilkinson
wrote that he got the idea from seeing a careless workman splash
paraffin on the buds as well as on the union in fruit tree grafting at
the McCoy Nursery about 1914. The author bought apple and plum grafts
about 1922 from the Gurney Nursery which were all covered with paraffin.
It was at conventions of the Northern Nut Growers' Association that new
methods like this were passed along to members.