66 NUT GROWING 



avoid winter injury which sometimes lessens the vi- 

 tality of those which are cut in February or March. 

 For northern regions, on the whole, it would per- 

 haps be best to cut scions while they are still dor- 

 mant in the early spring, unless one has facilities for 

 keeping them through the winter in cold storage. 

 When scions have been cut in quantity for the com- 

 ing season's work they may be kept in cold storage 

 with a little slightly dampened moss tossed about 

 them loosely. Most men engaged in this work will 

 not have such facilities and an excellent method con- 

 sists in placing a box flat upon the earth of a cellar 

 that is not subject to severe temperature changes. 

 The bottom of the box may be covered with dead 

 leaves collected in the woods, but not wet. A layer 

 of scions placed upon a layer of leaves is covered 

 with more leaves and then another layer of scions 

 alternately but leaving room for at least a foot of 

 dead leaves over all. The top layer, a thick heap of 

 dead leaves, may be pressed down rather firmly with 

 boards and the entire box covered with bags or a 

 blanket. When stored in this way scions will keep 

 very much as Greening apples would keep under 

 similar circumstances. Scions may be covered with 

 sand on the cellar floor in the same way if one does 

 not have too large a quantity to be covered over. 

 Mr. J. F. Jones keeps his scions in sphagnum moss 

 slightly dampened with weak Bordeaux mixture. We 

 must avoid having scions too moist. When they 

 carry a full charge of water a good deal of vital 

 chemistry is going on continually and scions which 



