a spool, then, while the wax is warm, I dip it in; you can have the
cloth half an inch wide or an inch wide just as you please. My way of
making wax is, I take two pounds of rosin, one pound of beeswax and half
a pound of tallow. I find that stands all kinds of weather.
Mr. Jones: You prefer the tallow?
Col. Sober: Yes sir, I do.
The Chairman: Beef tallow or mutton tallow?
Col. Sober: I prefer mutton tallow; two pounds of rosin, one of beeswax
and half a pound of tallow. Then you want to boil it very slowly and
thoroughly, and pour it in cold water.
A Member: Do you unroll this roll of cloth?
Col. Sober: I have a machine to turn it on just the same as you would on
a spool.
Mr. Jones: The strip goes through the wax?
Col. Sober: No, you wind that, then when your wax is warm, you drop this
in but secure the ends, then take it out and lay it by till it's all
saturated; then I tear it off as I use it. I find that is the most
convenient thing, and I generally get calico, that is pretty closely
woven, but is rotten so that it tears easily.
Mr. Jones: Did you ever use raffia for tying your grafts?
Col. Sober: No sir, I have not.
Mr. Jones: We have used it on pecans and walnuts for the reason that it
doesn't have to be untied as it bursts off with the growth of the tree.
Col. Sober: This wax I have tried on thousands and thousands of grafts
and it stands all kinds of weather. You can get wax that's been there 8
or 10 years and you can take it off now and use it.
Mr. Jones: That is one advantage of using the tallow; linseed oil will
dry out.
Col. Sober: Tallow is the best; that's been my experience.
A Member: If linseed oil is not used immediately or very soon, it gets
hard.
Mr. Jones: It's all right in wax and all right in cloth, too, if you
keep it in a damp place till ready to use.
Mr. Hutt: Can you use parafine in place of beeswax?
The Chairman: Have you tried this method on the other hickories besides
the pecans?
Mr. Jones: Yes sir.
The Chairman: You've got shagbark to catch fairly well, have you by this
method?
Mr. Jones: Yes sir.
The Secretary: How did your pecans and hickories do last summer?
Mr. Jones: I've forgotten the exact percentage that grew. Some died
after they had made a growth of several inches. I think I left too many
limbs growing on the hickories. Some of them made quite good growth.
A Member: When is this kind of grafting done?
Mr. Jones: We wait until the sap is up.
The Chairman: What do you cover the top with?
Mr. Jones: With wax. We leave this open at the bottom, for the reason
that the sap can get out and not ferment. If it holds the sap, it will
sour you know.
The Chairman: How far down does your wax go, Mr. Jones?
Mr. Jones: Far enough to cover up the wrapping.
A Member: Does that work on pecans as well as hickories?
Mr. Jones: Yes sir. To show the value of this patch, we have grafted
rows side by side and got 80 per cent where we used this patch and 34
per cent where we waxed it over solid and left no ventilation or exit
for the sap.
A Member: Isn't that to keep the wax out of the cambium layer?
Mr. Jones: Yes sir, it does that too.
Prof. Smith: Are there any fine points about this trimming, other than
mere wedge?
Mr. Jones: No sir, only it's thick on one side, as you will see so that
it wedges tightly.
A Member: Isn't it a fact that you can use three and four year pecan
wood just as well?
Mr. Jones: Yes sir, two year wood or three will give you better results
than one year.
Col. Sober: What time in the season do you graft?
Mr. Jones: The 20th of April to the 20th of May here.
Prof. Smith: What stage of stock do you prefer?
Mr. Jones: Well it doesn't matter, you can graft these after they have
made a foot of new growth, if you've got a good dormant scion; you could
put in a graft any time in the summer, perhaps.
A Member: How long do you leave on the paper bags?
Mr. Jones: Until the scion begins to grow. Sometimes I have made a
mistake and left them on until they grew up and curled down.
Prof. Smith: What is the superiority of that over plain cleft grafting?
Mr. Jones: You can do better work and do it quicker. I have put in 1200
grafts in a day.
The Chairman: You don't mind this arch being left up?
Mr. Jones: That ought to go a little deeper, maybe, but it don't make
much difference, so long as it is well waxed.
Prof. Smith: The paper bag protects the scion?
Mr Jones: Yes sir. The object is not to protect the scion so much as to
keep it dry. You want to keep the scion dry until it gets sap from the
stock to start it into growth.
Prof. Smith: Is it necessary that this should be waxed cloth?
Mr. Jones: No sir, we use paper ordinarily, of course we run wax over
the paper in waxing the scion and then the paper is as good as cloth.
Col. Sober: Do you find it apt to curl up in windy days--the paper? I
tried that and had all kinds of trouble until I got on to the tape.
Mr. Jones: We don't try to tie with the paper; the paper is only to let
the surplus moisture or sap out.
A Member: Does this tend to hold that in or is it all held in by the
patch there?
Mr. Jones: This doesn't really need any tying, as it is large.
The Chairman: Would you carry the patch around to the other side?
Mr. Jones: No sir, just fill it up with wax.
The Chairman: And the juice runs out of there and will escape anyway.
Mr. Jones: Yes sir.
A Member: Do you wax in addition to the paper you put on?
Mr. Jones: We don't wax the scion all over. We used to take hot wax and
run a thin layer over the whole scion, but we quit that and used the
bag, because if you wax over a scion tight and it happens to have
sufficient moisture, it will start growth with that moisture before it
makes the union.
Prof. Smith: Do you wax the tip end?
Mr. Jones: Yes sir.
Prof. Smith: Do you wax this in here?
Mr. Jones: Yes sir; we fill that over with liquid wax. It is possible to
have your wax too hot, and burn the scion.
Prof. Smith: Have you found that all the species of hickory take grafts
with equal ease?
Mr. Jones: We grafted some here last spring that started very nicely and
then died. I don't know whether it was in the hickory stock or whether
they were robbed by the sprouts; we didn't pull off any sprouts. There's
a whole lot of things we don't know about grafting yet, but will know
more in time.
The Chairman: How about using scion wood more than one year old?
Mr. Jones: We prefer two or three year old wood for the scion. We have
coming now, 3,000 walnut scions from California and they are all to be
two and three years old. I have put in rows of 100 with large two year
scions and you could count 100 and not find one dead among them and some
of the scions were almost as big as my wrist. It's a job to cut them.
You see that scion, being large, has enough vitality to hold it until it
can make a union.
A Member: You want one bud on this?
Mr. Jones: We generally have two buds.
A Member: Do you use the same method on the Persian walnut?
Mr. Jones: Yes sir; we got a little stingy one year and cut these all to
one bud and hardly got any out of them. You've got to have wood enough
to hold the scions dormant; of course there may be one or more buds on
the scion.
The Chairman: And got to have food enough in them.
Mr. Jones: Yes sir. Col. Sober grafts chestnuts that way, but I have
never been able to graft pecans and walnuts with very short scions.
The Chairman: I have caught chestnuts with one bud, but most of the nut
trees want more food and you've got to have a lot in the scion.
Prof. Smith: Have you used that with pecans in the North?
Mr. Jones: Yes sir, this will be our method of propagation.
After Mr. Jones had given further illustrations of the process of
grafting, the convention adjourned.
SOME PERSIAN WALNUT OBSERVATIONS, EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS FOR 1912
E. R. LAKE, WASHINGTON, D. C.
The Arlington work for 1912 in the propagation of the Persian walnut
consisted in top-grafting three and four year old nursery stock by
several methods, as ordinary cleft, side cleft, bark cleft, prong, whip
and modified forms of these. For wrapping we tried bicycle tape, waxed
cord and cloth, with wax and plasticine for covering.
The work was done during the latter part of April and first part of May.
The stocks averaged from 3/4 to 1-1/4 inches diameter, and were cut off
from 16 to 30 inches above the surface of the ground. In a few cases
bark grafting by modified whip form was performed upon the branches at a
height of about 4 feet.
Later in the season from June 12th to August 25th buds were placed by
varying methods. In the earlier instances the buds were taken from
left-over grafting stock. Of the scion wood received last year all the
wood from Eastern growers was frost bitten and wholly failed to take
with one or two exceptions.
The Pacific Coast wood was received in excellent condition and
operations with it were gratifying, especially with the ordinary cleft
graft, and patch bud.
Next year's work in grafting will be confined to the cleft, and the
bark-whip processes. This latter is very simple and under careful
treatment promises to be a convenient and successful process.
In the budding operations we resorted to a number of methods largely for
the benefit of the information obtained from the practice, and not so
much for the returns in propagated trees.
However, for 1913 in the work of propagating for stock results we shall
confine our practice to the patch method, though we may find from later
tests that the hinge method so favorably looked upon by Oregon is better
suited to the work.
Various experiments with tying material were tried. Raffia, cotton cord,
waxed cloth and bicycle tape were used. The raffia and cord gave best
results. A tight tie is needed.
June-budding from the left-over graft-wood gave a very low percentage of
"takes." Most of the buds appeared to be drowned. Buds from the current
year's growth inserted from early to middle of August are at present
apparently in good dormant condition.
Some July buds from the left-over graft-wood placed in the younger
branches of a twelve year old American black took well and made from
three to six inches growth. The branches were cut back as soon as the
buds appeared to be set, a course that would not be advocated if one
were doing the work for re-topping. The young wood from these buds is
delicate and soft and in order to insure their living through the
winter, so far as our efforts may avail, they have been enclosed in
strong paper bags. In our budding and grafting operations we had no
success with the Japanese or Chinese stocks. We expect to try them
further as their rapid growth makes them much to be desired if a
permanent union can be effected. So far as we have been able to learn
from the southern propagators who have worked along this line, no
difficulty has been encountered in effecting a short-life union,--four
to six years on an average, though a few have kept alive for twelve
years.
The growth of the successful grafts has been very variable. In several
instances in which both scions upon a stock grew, the growth was from
two to three feet. In other cases the young wood was scarcely a foot
long.
The fact that the stocks and scion-wood varied widely in size and vigor
and the further fact that the scions were from several varieties of
western stock are quite sufficient causes for no uniform results in this
respect.
The wood of all successful grafts appears to be in excellent condition
for the winter season and we are looking forward to an interesting
further growth of these next year, though the trees have just been
transplanted. In order to doubly insure ourselves against loss of the
varieties now growing one half, or even more in a few instances, of the
young wood has been removed and placed in a cold room so that further
grafting or budding of these varieties may be made next year.
Nursery trees of the Franquette, Pomeroy, Parisienne and unidentified
others, on their own roots are making a pitiable effort at successful
growth, while all wood on the black stock is making excellent growth.
In one instance the wood of Mayquette a cross between Mayette and
Franquette formed two nutlets. Lack of pollen was all that prevented the
fruiting of one-year-old grafted trees. A splendid point for the unit
orchard booster, but a point of no value to the real walnut grower.
CROSS FERTILIZATION
Owing to the very vigorous weather of the past winter the catkins on the
older Persians at Arlington Farm were killed. In order to study the
conduct and product of these trees we sought pollen elsewhere to
fertilize their liberal display of pistils. We were successful in
obtaining some from the trees of Messrs. Killen and Rosa, and Miss Lea,
but though this and some pollen of black, butternut and the Japanese was
used no pollenation was successful.
In the case of sieboldiana, however, we succeeded in securing what
appears to be fruit of certain definite cross-fertilization, as
sieboldiana x nigra; sieboldiana x cinerea and possibly sieboldiana x
regia.
Only in one instance did the nuts appear to have other than the usual
characters of sieboldiana.
The nuts of the cinerea cross were longer, more tubular and somewhat
deeper furrowed and darker.
Unfortunately some conflicting results in the fruiting of the
sieboldiana places the possible cross-fruits under a cloud.
A peculiarity of the blossoming of the sieboldiana at Arlington this
year was that the stamens and pistils of an individual tree opened at
dates of six to ten days apart, and with the tree used for crossing the
catkins were all off before the pistils opened. As no two trees are near
together, perhaps two to three hundred feet being the closest,
natural cross-pollenating was not expected. However, after the
cross-pollenations by hand were made and fruits set, and even matured,
it was found that some clusters had from one to three more nuts than
were hand treated. Many of the clusters had less nuts than the number of
pistils treated, which was to be expected.
But how to account for the extra sets is a problem not clear for it is
possible that pollenation might have occurred in one of two ways--by
stray pollen grains from the hand operations by wind-carried grains from
the trees. In any event only the fruiting of the trees from the nuts
under consideration will settle it, and as these have been planted we
are on the way to the solution.
THE INDIANA PECANS
R. L. MCCOY, INDIANA
The pecan is probably the best nut that grows. It belongs to the hickory
family which is indigenous to North America. Since water is its natural
distributing agent it is most generally found growing intermixed with
the large hickory nut or shagbark in creek and river bottoms. While the
hickory is hardy enough to thrive even into the Canadian provinces the
pecan is not so hardy and is seldom found in the northern tier of
states. It thrives well as far north as the northern boundary of
Illinois. The writer has seen a transplanted tree in bearing in Branch
County, Michigan, and native trees along the Mississippi River near the
mouth of the Wisconsin.
The nuts in the extreme northern limit are not much larger than a hazel
nut. But the nuts that grow in Indiana and Illinois from the Ohio River
on the south to Rock Island on the northwest and Lafayette on the
northeast are much larger. Here are found many superior nuts worthy of
propagation. In fact, the writer has before him a great many nuts of
named and un-named varieties which he and Mr. Littlepage and others have
discovered in their search for worthy nuts in the native pecan woods.
There are many thousand acres of these groves on the Ohio, Green, Wabash
and Illinois rivers where many trees are found which bear nuts as large
as some of the varieties which are being propagated in the Gulf Coast
country.
The nuts of the Evansville group are especially noted for their fine
flavor. The people of this section will not eat southern pecans if they
can get native nuts. This year several carloads of these native wild
nuts will be shipped to the Cleveland, Boston, and New York markets.
While the finer nuts seldom get into the markets at all but are bought
by wealthy men in the locality where they grow. Many men buy from a
special tree year after year--its flavor suiting their taste.
The yield from some of these larger trees (and there are many of them
four feet in diameter and some as large as nineteen feet four inches in
circumference at shoulder height) is very good. The writer has seen a
number in the last few days which were estimated to have from four to
six hundred pounds, the most of the crop having not yet been gathered.
He knows of one tree which bore (17) seventeen bushels and Mr. Louis
Huber of Shawneetown gathered 718 pounds from another tree. Two hundred
and eighty-five pounds of nuts were gathered and weighted from the Luce
tree. These nuts were gathered green for fear of their being stolen and
it was estimated that fifteen pounds were left on the tree. Also that
the hail storm in early September destroyed fifty (50) pounds more.
Hence the Luce bore approximately eight bushels. The Kentucky tree had
four and one-half bushels by measurement. The Warrick tree had, the best
we can estimate, about 150 pounds. The Grayville, or Posey as Mr.
Littlepage wishes to call it, bore at least two hundred pounds by
weight. One hundred and sixty pounds were gathered from the Major and
two hundred and fifty pounds from the Green River tree. We do not think
the Hinton bore to exceed two pounds of nuts. We do not know the amount
of nuts gathered from the Indiana and the Busseron trees. The Buttrick
tree had some three or four bushels of nuts this year but as a dredge
ditch was recently constructed by it, destroying half of its root
system, it did not mature its crop. This tree has been in bearing since
1817 and it has not been known to miss a crop previous to this year.
In our search for nuts worthy of being propagated we have found several
nuts as yet un-named that are in our opinion much superior to any
northern nut that has been brought to public notice. But as we know
little of their bearing record and do not wish to burden the nurserymen
with too many varieties we will keep these trees under observation for a
year or two before naming them.
We have been trying to propagate some of the best varieties at our
nursery for about three years. Our first attempt was root-grafting in
which our success varied from 15 per cent to 75 per cent under the best
conditions. We found after some experience that it was not difficult to
root-graft. But last winter, 1911-12, was the coldest winter for some
years, the thermometer registering as low as 20 degrees below. Most of
our root-grafts were killed back to the ground but few if any of them
were killed outright. When spring came they started new growth and are
now about four feet high. The fall of 1911 was very warm and wet and
they were in vigorous growth until the first week in November when we
had a hard freeze which killed the wheat, causing the worst failure in
that crop ever known in this section. The winter then following being
very cold we had two conditions against spring root-grafted pecans. But
we failed to see any budded ones that were injured. However, we only had
pecans budded to hickory which was done by Mr. Paul White in May, 1911
and, so far as we know, this was the first hickory top-worked to pecan
in Indiana. However, he now has quite a number top-worked last spring
that have made a growth of three or four feet. We also have both budded
and root-grafted pecans from last spring and summer so that in the
spring we will have a better opportunity to see what effect the winter
will have on them.
So far as we are able to determine from our observation of a few
orchards all pecan trees bought from southern nurserymen and planted in
this section have either died out or made very feeble growth. Although
some large Texas nuts have been planted here and grown, yet they have
either not fruited at all or the nuts have proved no better than our
native nuts.
The northern pecan timber is not brash like the southern pecan but is
very elastic and tough. An axe-handle made from northern pecan sells for
ten cents more than one made from hickory and pecan timber is much
sought after by axe-handle makers.
The people in this section have in the last few years awakened to the
fact that their swamps studded with pecan trees are about the most
valuable lands they possess and many are the inquiries: "Where can we
get good budded or grafted pecans?"
The idea of propagating the northern pecan is of very recent origin and
while the few attempts at propagation have not as yet met with any very
great success, yet we are hoping that the time will be when many acres
of our lands shall be set in valuable pecan orchards and our highways
lined with long rows of fine pecans, chestnuts, and English walnuts
which shall serve the three-fold purpose of beautifying Mother Earth,
yielding delicious food, and furnishing a place of rest for the weary
traveler.
APPENDIX
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY AND TREASURER
Bal. on hand, date of last report $ 48.73
Annual dues and life membership 178.00
Advertisements in Annual Report 25.00
Sale of report 18.00
Dr. Crocker, paid for list of names 2.00
Prof. Collins, paid for reprints 8.00
________
Total receipts $279.73
Expenses:
Expenses of Prof. Collins $ 20.85
Printing report and reprints 195.16
Other printing 38.00
Postage 35.75
Typewriting 16.24
Stationery 4.50
Miscellaneous 14.30
_______
Total expenses $324.80
Bill receivable 1.00
Bill payable 22.00
_______ _______
$346.80 $280.73
Deficit $66.07
Our first annual report, embodying the transactions at the first
and second annual meetings, was issued in May, and copies were sent
to all members, to the principal libraries of the country, to
officials of the Agricultural Department at Washington, and to some
state agricultural officials, to several agricultural and other
periodicals for notice and review, and to various persons
especially interested. Eighteen copies have been sold.
About 1,000 copies of each of the two circulars, "Why Nut Culture
is Important" and "The Northern Nut Growers Association and Why You
Should Join It", have been sent to members and correspondents, and
also revised circulars on the literature of nut growing and on
seedsmen and nurserymen.
An illustrated article about nut growing and the association
appeared in the Literary Digest and many agricultural and other
periodicals have had notices of our association and our meeting.
* * * * *
Besides the regular notices sent to members and papers, different
notices and brief statements about nut growing, were sent weekly
for five weeks before the meeting to 80 different newspapers
published in the country about Lancaster in the hope of getting a
good local attendance. The Pennsylvania Chestnut Blight Commission
assisted in this publicity campaign by sending postal card notices
to about a hundred persons in the eastern part of Pennsylvania who
were known to have from a few to thousands of cultivated chestnut
trees.
The secretary's correspondence has increased so as to become, if it
were not for enthusiasm, burdensome. Often several inquiries a day
are received and they come from all parts of the United States and
Canada.
The following figures are brought up to date of going to press.
Our membership has nearly doubled since the last report was issued,
increasing from 60 to 113. We have lost 1 member by death and 2 by
resignation. Our present membership standing at 110.
We have members in 27 states, the District of Columbia, Panama, and
Canada. New York heads the list with 37 members and Pennsylvania
comes next with 12.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS
READ BY PROFESSOR SMITH
RESOLVED:
1. That we extend our thanks to the Mayor and citizens of Lancaster for
the welcome and entertainment they have afforded us while here and for
the excellent auditorium they have placed at our disposal.
2. That we extend our thanks to Messrs. Rush and Jones and their
entertainment committee.
3. That we extend our thanks to the Pennsylvania Chestnut Tree Blight
Commission for the attendance of their representatives. We note with
keen interest their expressions of hope for the control of this
cyclopean menace.
4. That we express our deep appreciation of the great interest and
valuable services of Dr. Morris, the retiring President, and Dr. Deming,
the Secretary and Treasurer, two officers to whose untiring efforts this
Association is largely due.
5. That we express the thanks of the Association to those members and
others who have enriched this meeting by their interesting exhibits.