GRAFTING 117 



worked trees cheap laths are better. They may be 

 cut in half, or split, or used whole. Laths are easily 

 nailed to the limbs or trunk of a tree with small gal- 

 vanized nails, which are practically harmless. A 

 growing shoot is then tied to the free part of the 

 lath with one or more strands of cord. Tarred sisal 

 cord is the best material that I have found for gen- 

 eral tying purposes with everything from graft 

 shoots to grapevines and roses. It is soft enough 

 to avoid injury to the bark, strong enough to with- 

 stand severe strain, durable enough to last for two 

 years of exposure to all of the kinds of weather that 

 come along, and cheap enough to please a nut grower 

 until his nut trees come into bearing. Tarred sisal 

 cord may be purchased by the pound from any 

 cordage dealer. 



It is well to allow a lath to remain in place for 

 two seasons for the support of the larger and heavier 

 graft shoots. At the end of that time the support 

 is removed and the galvanized nails withdrawn from 

 the stock. 



In order to hurry graft shoots into full growth it 

 is desirable to rub off all natural sprouts from the 

 stock as fast as they appear at first. With some 

 kinds of trees, black walnuts and hazels in particu- 

 lar, this will have to be done two or three times a 

 week in good growing weather. If it is not done 

 the stock will quickly abandon nourishment of the 

 graft in order to attend to Nature's first law, self- 

 preservation. When dealing with small saplings all 

 of the natural shoots may be kept down and nothing 



