GRAFTING 99 



farther south. With the addition of a paper sack 

 covering, however, for a few days, until grafts are 

 well under way, parowax may suffice. Incidentally, 

 the melter may be used for some kinds of glue or 

 other material to be kept at a definite temperature 

 when in fluid form. 



Until recently propagators have preferred wood 

 that is two or three years of age for grafting work, 

 with hickories and walnuts in particular, because the 

 last year's growth is apt to be pithy and more or less 

 hollow. With the paraffin coating I have found that 

 scions which were so hollow as to be spoken of as 

 tin whistles by one of my men have grown quite as 

 freely as scions cut from older wood. We have to 

 use a greater degree of care in the sharpness of 

 knives in order to avoid breaking down the pith or 

 partitions (septa), which occur in many of the one- 

 year-old scions. Scion grafting is now as economical 

 as bud grafting because the short graft with only 

 one bud will suffice if the paraffin method is em- 

 ployed. Formerly a longer scion was required in 

 order that it might retain its "life" better. Bud 

 grafting offered few advantages over scion grafting 

 excepting in the greater economy of material and 

 in the fact that bud grafting might be done in late 

 summer when there was not the rush that formerly 

 impelled us in the springtime. The matter of rush in 

 the springtime has now been somewhat done away 

 with by the methods described in this book, but bud 

 grafting may be done later in summer or autumn 

 than is possible with scion grafting as yet. Scion 



