FRUIT GROWING 25 



ful grafters think walnut grafting should not be done until within a 

 month before the spring sap flow loosens the bark. February and 

 March are good months. There should not be enough sap so that 

 the bark loosens when the scion is driven in unless one is "grafting 

 in the bark" without splitting the stock. 



Protecting Walnut Grafts. 



I have lost many of my walnut grafts by frost when the shoots for 

 the scions were out about four inches. Could I slip large paper bags over 

 the scion and tie same to the stump below cleft without having to remove 

 the bags on warm days? This latter method might also protect the wa-x 

 from wind and sun. 



Edwin Gower commends hooding the stump with burlap, tying it 

 around the stump and punching holes above for the new shoots to 

 grow through. A white paper bag could be used for a time without 

 injuring growth unless the wind should blow the outfit over and break 

 the tender shoots. Such bags would offer considerable resistance to 

 the wind. 



Pith-Rot in Walnuts. 



Some of my walnut trees planted last year, and now four to six 

 feet high, have the stem hollow. I took it first for the work of borers, 

 but on cutting some of the trees down two or even three feet to the 

 "green" heart have found no borer or other insect at either end. Now 

 even two or three feet above the point where the apparently dead center 

 stops there are green shoots. Am I doing right in cutting the stem back 

 to the "green" heart, even where good healthy shoots are growing 

 above it? 



The pith exposed by cutting back at planting should have been 

 immediately covered with grafting wax, asphaltum or simple lead 

 and oil paint. This would have excluded water and prevented pith 

 rot. You can close up the hole now, keep the shoots which are com- 

 ing on the hollow stem and trust the injury to grow over this summer, 

 or cut back now below the extension of the rot and and cover the 

 wound at once. Choice of method depends upon whether there are 

 good strong shoots below to make a well-shaped tree. We would 

 rather take the chance of the healing over than to cut to dormant buds 

 which might make your branching-head too low. Decay from the pith 

 is not likely to invade adjacent active tissue on small shoots if they 

 grow actively. The enlargement of the branch, by laying on of tissue 

 on the outside will make a strong branch in which the early decay of 

 which you speak will merely appear as a central black line, if you 

 cut if off a few years hence to look at it. 



Walnut Bleaching. 



7 wish to know how to bleach about 200 pounds of walnuts. The 

 electrical process is out of my reach. 



