90 



brought inside, planted in 8 iiicli pots and placed in the greenhouse 

 where they were allowed to remain until a good leaf growth had been 

 produced. The young trees were then side cleft grafted with scions 

 of the best English walnuts in the district. While engaged in this 

 work one of the trees was inadvertently cut off a few inches above the 

 ground. The stub was then whip grafted and to my surprise it made 

 a better growth than the others which had a part of the top left on. 

 The results of our experiment were much better than I expected. 

 About K)% of the scions grew which' was quite satisfactory consider- 

 ing that I was a mere novice in the art of grafting nut trees and that 

 my method was an experiment. I believe I could get 70 to 75% to 

 grow with greater care in the selection and handling of scions. The 

 object in doing the work in the greenhouse was to obtain better control 

 conditions of moisture and temperature and thus reduce the mortality 

 of scions due to these factors. 



I also outlined an experiment in projjagating nut trees by cuttings 

 as a thesis subject for one of our fourth year horticultural students 

 at the O. A. C. In this experiment ten cuttings each of English wal- 

 nut, butternut, Japanese walnut, hickory, chestnut and black walnut 

 were planted in sand and watered at intervals with a 1 to 10,000 solu- 

 tion of potassium permanganate. In the course of time the majority 

 of cuttings came out in leaf, but none formed roots, and hence soon 

 died. It is admitted that this experiment may have been improperly 

 planned and conducted, but it showed at any rate that it is not an easy 

 matter to propagate most nut plants by root or stem cuttings. 



In 1923 I purchased with my own funds another lot, 1^ bushels, of 

 good heartnuts and sent them in lots of about two dozen to the secretar- 

 ies of 125 horticultural societies, and to about 30 other parties for trial 

 planting. I found that this little contribution was gratefully received 

 and in many cases brought forth inquiries for the names of people from 

 whom good trees might be purchased. I do not propose to carry on 

 much more of this free distribution of nuts as that would not be fair 

 to the individuals 'themselves or to those engaged in the propagation 

 of nut trees. My chief reason for distributing these nuts was to stim- 

 ulate interest, and now that my objective has been attained I will refer 

 inquiring parties to reputable nut nurserymen. 



Numerous requests for addresses on nut culture have been re- 

 ceived from horticultural societies, women's institutes and other or- 

 ganizations. I have always endeavored to comply with these requests 



