FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
81 
portion of the blame to the dry spring. 
Heretofore I have always taken the pre¬ 
caution to mix up a clay putty, and after 
inserting the graft I applied clay, and if 
the season was dry I applied Spanish 
moss, and this year I did not take that 
precaution. So I have no reason to 
blame the weather. At the same time 
I took such trouble with the insertion I 
expected better results. I had much 
better results in the same soil with the 
persimmon. 
Mr. Taber—Success or failure in 
grafting the pecan depends very largely 
upon the weather that ensues. If the 
ground is moist there is very little dan¬ 
ger of any natural loss; at least, success 
is practically insured. But if the weather 
turns very dry and the cions dry out, 
which they will do, the loss will be heavy. 
A gentleman who had grafted some pe¬ 
can seedlings had a method that was 
quite interesting to me. He cut off the 
limbs anywhere from an inch to an inch 
and a half in diameter and inserted cions 
well waxed over, and the next thing he 
did was to fill a bottle of water and tie 
it on the stub of the tree. Wrap the 
cion with one end of a cloth and keep 
the other end in the bottle of water. Ca¬ 
pillary attraction keeps the cion wet and 
prevents drying out. 
Mr. Butler—I grafted a citrus tree and 
found by putting a jelly glass over it 
it did much better. 
Mr. Mann—I have about forty seed¬ 
ling pecan trees. I planted the nuts 
some six or seven years ago and they 
now range from four to twelve feet high. 
Last fall I was very much surprised to 
find the limbs all cut off. Looked as if 
someone had taken the clipper and clip¬ 
ped off the ends. I picked up the limbs 
and on close examination I saw that 
there had been an insect at work. I 
remember that I had heard that that was 
one of the ways which insects have of 
propagating themselves, by cutting off 
the limbs, and I did not know of any 
other way than to gather up all those 
twigs and burn them. 
Prof. Hume—I would simply state 
that what Mr. Mann did was the best 
and the only thing to do. The egg is 
laid toward the top (?) of the twig 
and then the insect walks down a short 
distance and cuts off the twig. 
Mr. Mann—Is there any way to pre¬ 
vent his work before we find the limb 
cut? 
Mr. Cooper—I would just say for the 
benefit of this gentleman that five years 
ago I put out about a hundred very fine 
pecan trees. They were seedlings and 
bore fine fruit, but that little insect would 
cut off the twigs. I got my foreman, 
got a cane rod, wrapped moss around it, 
sent out a man very early in the morning 
and burned them off. We have headed 
them off in that way, so they don’t cut 
them at all. Take this moss with oil on 
it, not too much of a fire, and you will 
stop that work. 
G 
