B. 1'. I.— ;ts. s. 1". I. I).— jy. 



m^DDrXn THE PKOAN. 



DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN PECAN BUDDING. 



The propaii^ation of the pecan has hitherto been one of the principal 

 drawbacks to the successful cuhivation of this nut tree. According 

 to the pubhshed ex])eriences of trrowers who ha\e given attention to 

 propagation by budding and grafting, the percentage of successful 

 unions in the total nund)«'rof plants worked has been small. Although 

 th(» young budded or grafted trees are sold at very high })rices, the 

 work is unr«Muunerative from the luirservmjurs point of view. Much 

 of the work of ])ecan propagation has doubtless been along similar 

 lines to those favorable to the propagation of well-understood subjects, 

 such as the apple peach, and other fruit trees. Consequent!}' the 

 pecan has earned the reputation of being difficult to work on stocks of 

 the same or allied species. This is not to be wondered at, as mistakes 

 are ver}' easily made in the selection of working material, time of 

 operating, etc. The writer is convinced, however, tiiat if budding be 

 performed as herein described the pecan will i-ewur"d the careful oper- 

 ator with a high percentage of unions. 



The principal trouble encountered in pecan Imdding is undoubtedly 

 due to the selection of wrong material from the tree to be propagated. 

 By the methods usually adopted a success not above the average was 

 attained, and it is easy to understand why small trees ])udded from 

 choice varieties can not be sold at less than from !^1 to $8 each. By 

 the use of a method which has been devised for budding the pecan and 

 the selection of 1-year-old buds the outlook is good for very success- 

 ful propagation. It will be seen where some of the trouble lies if the 

 budding of the peach is compared with that of the pecan. In the case 

 of the former a shoot of the current year's growth will b}" the latter 

 part of August give a very large number of buds which can be worked 

 successfulh'. This is not the case with the pecan. True, a number 

 of likely looking buds are formed on a shoot of the current season, 

 but by the method of budding in use at present not many of the buds 

 on a shoot are used. Two or three at the base are generall}' selected, 

 but, as will be explained later, there is great danger of unsatisfactory 

 results through using even the best of these buds. 



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