BUDDING WALNUTS 



compound leaf, leaving a stub of an inch or so, and was delighted 

 to find that a stub thus left became dry and parted from the stem 

 just as a mature leaf does in the autumn. By cutting off the leaves 

 in this way about August 15, the stubs part readily before Septem- 

 ber 1, and then he takes off clean, flat buds and uses them just as 

 he does in budding the peach, except that he leaves no wood behind 

 the bud. He takes rather a large shield and puts it under the bark 

 of the stock through a "T" cut, then wraps well with a strip of 

 cheese cloth and waxes over the cloth with ordinary grafting wax. 

 The wrapping is applied so as to cover most of the bark slit, every- 

 thing beyond being waxed over. The bud is then allowed to remain 

 dormant until the following spring. 



Mr. Pennington of Vacaville has been very successful in bud- 

 ding by cutting buds in the regular shield form, about 1^4 inches 

 long, cut from branches y 2 to y^ inch in diameter, so as to get wide 

 buds with but little wood left in them. He also prefers to have 

 stocks large, and considers a stock \y 2 inches in diameter not too 

 large. He uses ordinary budding twine for tying, but does not use 

 wax to cover the incisions. He says it is best to put off budding as 

 late as it is possible to get a good flow of sap, as then the weather is 

 likely to be cooler, which is an important factor, and the growing 

 season is about finished, which will allow the twine to be left in 

 place all winter, which he considers advisable. 



Buds are more apt to succeed when pushed upward from the 

 cross-cut than downward from it. The cuts would then be an 

 inverted "T." No preparation of the budding wood is made, except 

 that mature buds are taken. About 90 per cent of the buds placed 

 are said to grow. 



Grafting the Walnut. Grafting into black walnut seedling root 

 can also be well done by a triangular cut into the edge of the root 

 stump, as described for grafting into grape-vine stumps in Chapter 

 XXVI. In the case of the walnut, close binding with a wax band is 

 desirable. 



Large walnut trees can be worked over either by budding or 

 grafting. If by budding, the large limbs are cut back in the winter, 

 and in autumn following, buds are put in, as just described, on as 

 many of the new shoots as may be desired. 



In grafting, the common cleft graft is used with a degree of 

 success particularly when the split is not made through the pitch, 

 but at one side ; the scion should be whittled so as to show as little 

 pith as possible. This is done by cutting down to a point at one 

 side and not in the center of the scion. Care should be taken to 

 cover all exposed surfaces. 



Grafting over is desirable either for substituting a better variety 

 of English walnut, or for working over a California black walnut into 

 an English variety, and as much attention is now being paid to 



