56 NUT CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



W. R. Stuart, Ocean Springs, Miss. : " I whip-grafted below the ground last winter; 

 very successful." 



N. B. Howard, Clarcona, Fla. : " I have grafted the pecan with common cleft graft 

 several feet from the ground; about 20 per cent succeeded. Many started well but 

 wilted and died. I am satisfied they were sucked by the soldier bugs. [Probably 

 either Rhaphigaster or Euthoctha.] It does considerable damage here. I have since 

 covered grafts with mosquito netting with success." 



James Mott, Orlando, Fla.: "We cleft graft at the collar on native hickory and 

 cover with earth, or if above ground we use ordinary grafting wax." 



Root grafting. B. O. Curtis, Paris, 111.: "I get stocks of seed from Knox County, 

 Ind., from which I grow for the trade. I graft 5 or 6 inches of scion on 4 inches of 

 root. They have lived and done well. I have done this two seasons." 



W. Sigerson, Ocean Springs, Miss. : " A neighbor has had success with seedlings 

 from seed bed, cut back and cleft grafted same as apple or pear." 



E. E. Risien, San Saba, Tex. : "We can, by the aid of a damp cellar, with the tem- 

 perature near 50, succeed in grafting seedling trees of the first year's growth by tongue 

 grafting. Both root and scion must be exactly the same size to make these little trees. 

 We need but 6 or 8 inches of the root; neither use any wax in tying. I bury these in 

 layers of clean river sand where they can get strong light (no sun); after we are quite 

 sure the union is complete and new roots are forming, plant separately in pots and 

 remove them in a week or so to a shady place. Water freely. This furnishes nice 

 little grafted trees for shipping by mail, but, as the percentage of these that live is so 

 small, the price will, I fear, always be high." 



J. H. Girardeau, Mouticello, Fla. : " I put in about 1,000 grafts in all, but found 

 that only those in which I had used the top half of the seedling root [as stock] lived. 

 I cut the seedling root, when long, into 2 and sometimes 3 pieces, and grafted each 

 piece. I find on close examination that only in one or two instances the lower sections 

 united with the scion. I used the ordinary splice graft. About 350 lived out of 

 about 500 top sections of root. One unfortunate mistake I made was in fertilizing 

 with cotton-seed ; this invited the wood-lice, and these destroyed fully one-half of all 

 that had lived." 



Top grafting. Successful top working by other methods than annular budding, 

 either on pecan or other hickories as stocks, is reported by a few experimenters. 



Owen Albright, Leesburg, Fla. : " With a wedge graft, cutting in diagonally; also 

 by splitting. I bud any time, and have grafted in July with new wood, cutting diag- 

 onally and leaving the top on until healed in. Have had success all these ways." 



Frank White, Live Oak, Fla. : " With cleft graft on young hickory. I use common 

 grafting wax and cover the waxed portion with cloth. Over three-fourths of them 

 grew." 



Dudley W. Adams, Tangerine, Fla.: "By cleft, side, or wedge graft. Quite 

 successful; growth rapid and strong. Grafts 4 years old 4 inches in diameter." A. 

 V. Chubbs, Peusacola, Fla.: "I succeed with bud on wild hickory. I have 1,000 

 thrifty young trees." 



Orchard vs. nursery. Whether to plant nuts where trees are to grow or to 

 transplant from the nursery is a disputed question among pecan growers. S. M. 

 James, of Mound, La., favors the former method and gives the following directions: 

 "Put the rows 60 feet apart and plant the nuts 4 or 5 inches deep, driving pieces 

 of shingle around the nuts to protect them and to mark the spot. The planting may 

 be done any time before the 1st of April, but the earlier the better. All the land, 

 the row planted in pecans included, should be planted in cotton and well worked. 

 In the fall following germination put down a post by the side of each plant, and 

 about 4 inches from it, and square in the cotton row ; this will be a protection to the 

 trees in after years. The post will turn the mule and plow and prevent the pecan 

 from being injured. Plow the row well that the pecans are planted on, and see that 



