BULLETIN 231] WALNUT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 225 



grafted tree of less than four feet in height at the end of the first season, 

 when grown among trees some of which go up to ten, twelve and more 

 feet, is of doubtful value, as it should presumably have made a better 

 growth if on a good root and with a good union. 



From the seedlings where the grafts did not take, numerous suckers 

 usually spring up and it is customary to take off all but one of these, 

 letting the latter grow up into a new seedling top. This will soon grow 

 over the scar where the original top was cut off and may be grafted 

 again the next year if this seems desirable. It is not, however, to be 

 recommended that such trees be grafted again and again the third and 

 even the fourth year, as practiced by some nurserymen in case the grafts 

 do not take. In such cases the root becomes extremely large, and with 

 each year's cutting off of the top the scar at the base becomes greater. 

 It is better to discontinue grafting after the second year and destroy 

 all the remaining seedlings on which the graft has not taken. By far 

 the most desirable grafted tree consists of a two-year-old root and one- 

 year-old top, as described above. Thus the top and root are of nearly 

 uniform size, and, if a good union is formed, complete healing at the 

 point of grafting takes place the first season. 



BUDDING. 



The operation of budding the walnut is by no means as uniformly 

 successful as in the case of ordinary fruit trees, yet some have per- 

 formed it with considerable success. Even at best, results in this 

 respect have been somewhat uncertain. Many different methods have 

 been practiced, but these we will not go into in detail, as they are largely 

 a matter of personal skill and there is no reason for supposing one 

 method to be better than the others under all conditions. In general, 

 we may say that most of the walnut budding in this State has been done 

 in the fall, usually in September^ the buds remaining dormant over 

 winter and starting into growth the following spring. In some of our 

 own experience, however, we have had good results with spring budding, 

 putting in the buds during May, June and early July and growing from 

 them trees up to as much as ten feet in height during the same season. 

 Spring buds of ' this height are exceptional, but we have found no diffi- 

 culty in getting a large percentage of them up to from four to six feet 

 during the same summer when they were budded. Such budding was 

 done mostly on new sprouts coming from one-year-old seedlings upon 

 which grafts had failed, or seedlings which had been too small to graft 

 during the previous winter. For such work the best buds are those 

 upon dormant wood cut during the previous winter at the same time of 

 cutting scions for grafting. Such wood may be easily kept over with 

 the buds dormant until June if properly stored in a cool place with 

 neither too much nor too little moisture. The buds on this grafting 

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