52 



out when I was grafting walnut trees. It went out when I was 

 grafting the very last tree. I put in perhaps twenty or thirty grafts 

 in all. All the other grafts caught but on that tree, after my light 

 went out, only one caught. In examining into the philosophy of it 

 a week later I found that the paraffin, being a little too thick, had 

 cracked. 



Question : When is the best time to do the grafting? 



Dr. Morris : I think the best time is after the sap season in the 

 spring; all through the latter part of May and in June and the first 

 half of July. • _ 



Question : Do you use paraffin of a particular melting point ? 



Dr. Morris : I have tried many but the one I use the most is 

 the commonest one. You can buy parawax in all groceries. If you 

 wish to make the parawax harder for the southern sun put in stearic 

 acid. It may be bought at any drugstore. Melt it with the paraffin 

 and that will harden it very much. 



Question : What proportion do you use ? 



Dr. Morris : It would depend on the degree of heat to be re- 

 sisted. I suppose you might use it in the proportion of one to four of 

 parawax, but very little stearic acid will harden it. 



Question : Isn't there a tendency to melt under the high tem- 

 perature of the sun? 



Dr. Morris: As a matter of fact I pay no attention to that in 

 the North. Although we have very hot days and the parafifin does 

 soften, it does not seem to interfere with the repair on the part of 

 the tree. 



Question : In the case of smaller grafts, what would be your 

 objection to the use of the ordinary whip graft? 



Dr. Morris : It makes one more motion. 



Question : It seems to me that it is more quickly done ? 



Dr. Morris : It may be ; that is a matter of individual technic. 

 My idea is to do the thing the quickest way. If a man has found that 

 he can put on one graft more quickly, that he has a technic that 

 gives him speed, which is one of the essentials of grafting, if you 

 can put on the whip graft quicker than I can put the other on, do it. 



Question : Do you have any trouble with the oxidizing of the 

 cambium ? 



Dr. Morris : Yes and no. Of course you free a certain num- 

 ber of enzymes. I haven't thought of it as an oxidizing process so 

 much as an enzymic injury, where enzymes are freed from an 

 organic solution. 



Question : I think that is correct. That is the common method 

 of expressing it. 



Dr. Morris : I use sometimes, when the weather is very hot 

 and I am grafting in the midst of sunshine on a hot day, a solution 

 that I have described containing salts belonging to the salts of trees. 

 I use that to dip my graft in and in that way the enzymes that are 

 freed from the cut surface are removed by the solution in such a 



