5 



dii-d during drouths. Of those that managed to live, few regained their 

 former vigor. 



The first improvement over the old system came with the introduc- 

 tion of the bark graft. Why not insert a graft under the bark at the 

 ends of the stubs when the tree was cut back early in the. spring? If 

 the graft should unite and grow, the second cutting would not be neces- 

 sary : and if it failed to unite, the sprouts would come just the same. 



Unquestionably this was an improvement; but still the first cutting 

 was necessary, and a high percentage of success was very difficult to 

 obtain with the bark graft. Moreover, the nature of the union was such 

 as to render splitting-oflf likely by the force of the^wind against the 

 vigorous new growth. 



TT jiving in mind the importance of the work and the weak points in 

 the systems previously followed, the Texas Agricultural Experiment 

 Station set about finding a mean? of top-working trees of considerable 

 size without cutting them back, while at the same time securing a high 

 percentage of successful operations. 



Tt lias been discovered that it is not necessary to have young sprouts 

 with thin bark as stocks for budding. Buds can be successfully placed 

 on limbs of any size, theoretically, though it is not practical to place 

 them where the limbs are more than two inches in diameter, as the 

 wound made by cutting back, after the bud has united, will be too long 

 in healing over. The limiting factor in the size of limb or trunk to be 

 budded is the -wound made by cutting back, just as is the case with 

 grafting. Any limb that is not too large to be cut b&ck for grafting 

 is not too large to be budded. 



Figure 1 will make the operation of patch-budding in thick bark 

 quite clear. 



Before the bud from the scion is inserted, the bark of the stock should 

 be trimmed down thin to match the bark of the bud. The pared place 

 should be about two inches long and one and a half inches wide. One 

 must be careful not to cut through the phloem cells in the bark of the 

 stock while doing the paring. After the bud-patch from the scion has been 

 placed in the matrix and tied in as shown in Figure 1, the whole pared 

 surface, including the edges of the matrix, should be lightly waxed over 

 to prevent drying out through evaporation. It is not necessary to wax 

 jover the bud segment as its outer bark has not been disturbed. 



Following is the recipe for the wax used: 



"Rosin two parts and beeswax one part. Melt together and set off to 

 cool. When it is nearly ready to resolidify, pour in wood alcohol, stir- 

 ring all the while. Continue till the mass is bright yellow in color and 

 quite soft. The quantity of alcohol necessary is about two-thirds the 

 volume of the other combined materials. Grain alcohol is best; wood 

 alcohol will do, but denatured alcohol will not do. 



The binding strings should be cut about three weeks after the buds 

 were put on. The strings are likely to cut into the bark and interfere 

 with the circulation if left for a longer period. In fact, it is thought 

 that many buds are killed by the strings in this way. Experiments with 

 rubber bands instead of strings showed a higher percentage of living 

 buds. If the rubber bands are used they need not be cut at all, as they 

 will decay from the action of the wax and will break before the three- 

 weeks period is out. 



