40 



fastened so as not to move witli the wind. iMr. Bixby has an excellent 

 label made on an aluminmn strip printing machine. It has a hole in 

 each end and is fastened with a heavy copper wire. He uses two of 

 these labels on each tree. Dr. Morris sometimes uses a heavy wire 

 stake to which he fastens the labels. A good method of attaching 

 labels, and one that does away with the risk of girdling the graft or 

 tree, is to fasten the label to a staple driven into the tree. The matter 

 of labels is a troublesome one for they will get lost no matter what 

 you do. 



Other conveniences of equipment are a small whetstone, a small 

 hammer, matches, and some volatile oil, like citronella, lavender, win- 

 tergreen, or other black fly and mosquito repellant. It is almost sui- 

 cidal to slap a mosquito on the back of your neck with a keen grafting 

 knife in your hand. A supply of parowax and alcohol for the lan- 

 tern's sake should be remembered. 



Techniqtie 



If the stocks are vigorous and active, and the scions full of vitality, 

 I doubt if the technique is of chief importance, provided it is ordinar- 

 ily good. However, a good technique will increase the percentage of 

 success. One should have a variety of methods at command for vary- 

 ingi conditions of stocks and scions. 



One may come as near 100^ success in grafting hickories as one is 

 able and willing to observe all the known factors of success. I think 

 that we can say now that the factors of success in hickory grafting are 

 known. They are a vigorous and active stock, a scion of abundant 

 vitality, coaptation of the freshly cut cambium layers and prevention 

 of desiccation. 



The stock and scion have already been considered. How is coapta- 

 tion best obtained? One of the best methods, one that can be used in 

 all seasons and in most conditions of stock and scion, is the side graft, 

 the one that Mr. Jones uses in his nursery work. That is the best 

 argument for this graft. It is, perhaps, the simplest, and at the same 

 time one of the most difficult, of all grafts. The scion is cut wedge 

 shaped and jnished into a slanting incision in the side of the stock. 

 Mr. Jones's modified cleft graft is only a side graft made in the top of 

 the stock after cutting it off. The difficulty lies chieflj^ in cutting the 

 scion and the incision in the stock so that the fit will be jDerfectly true- 

 This requires practice. 



The bark slot graft, as Dr. Morris calls it, I have used for several 



