Part 8 (1/2)

{Resin 6 pounds.

I. {Beeswax 2 pounds.

{Linseed Oil 1 pound.

{Resin 4 pounds.

II.{Beeswax 1 pound.

{Linseed Oil 1 pint.

Break the resin and cut the beeswax into small pieces. Place in an iron vessel, pour the oil over them and melt over a slow fire. Stir slightly to insure their being well mixed together, pour out into a bucket of cold water, grease the hands, and as soon as the ma.s.s is cool enough to handle, pull until it becomes light yellow in color. The wax may be made up in quant.i.ty and stored in greased tin or wooden boxes for future use.

To prepare waxed cloth, cut the cotton cloth into pieces of convenient size, say eighteen inches square, dip them down into the melted wax, remove them with a couple of sticks and stretch them out until cooled.

For use, the cloth may be torn into strips of desired width and wound about a stick eighteen inches or so in length. Use a little grease to prevent the grafting wax and grafting cloth from sticking to the hands.

For waxed twine, procure No. 18 knitting cotton and drop the b.a.l.l.s into the melted wax for a minute or two or until the wax penetrates them.

SELECTION OF SCIONS.

Great care should be exercised in the selection of scions for use in budding and grafting. Much of the immediate success of the work depends upon the character of the scions, while the health and longevity of the future tree may be materially influenced by the kind of wood used in propagating work.

The practice of taking scions and buds from young trees which have never borne, or from nursery stuck, must be strongly condemned. They should be cut only from thrifty, vigorous, prolific trees. Even trees of the same variety differ in these things, and a thorough knowledge of what a tree will do and has done is the only true guide in the selection of scions.

It is a well-known fact that desirable qualities can be reproduced and perpetuated by grafting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From Bul. 57, Florida Exp. Sta._

FIG. 19. Scions: 1-3, Curtis; 4-6, Van Deman; 7-8, Stuart. 1. Poor Scions--long, slender, pithy. 2,4,5,7,8. Scions from one year's growth.

3. Scion, partly one, partly two years old. 6. Scion with cut, back of tip. 8. Scion which bore fruit at a.]

Grafts should be selected from well-matured branches of one year's growth. Fig. 19, No. 1, shows an undesirable scion. The wood is angular, small, the internodes long, and the pith large in proportion to the diameter. Either terminal portions of twigs may be used or portions back of the tip, but the buds should always be well developed, full and plump--Fig. 19, Nos. 2 to 6. For this reason grafts should not be cut from wood far back from the tip of the branch. As stated, twigs of the previous season's growth are generally used, but scions composed partly of two-year-old wood may be used, provided the growth is not too large.

Fig. 19, No. 3, shows one of these. Grafts are generally cut about five or six inches long, and should be from one-quarter to three-eighths of an inch in thickness.

It is best that the grafts be cut while still in a dormant state, and inserted in the stock just before the growth starts. The scions may be kept for a considerable length of time by placing them, loosely packed, in damp moss or sawdust, in a box. The box should be covered over with earth and the scions kept sufficiently moist to prevent drying out.

For bud sticks, well developed one-year-old branches, one-half to seven-eighths of an inch in diameter, and on which the buds are well formed, may be used. Such sticks frequently show three buds at a node, and if some misfortune should overtake one or two of these, there is still a chance of success, though the upper one being the strongest is generally the one which starts, provided it is uninjured and the bud takes. The degree of maturity of the bud is important, and care should be exercised that only those which are plump, full and well developed, are used. As soon as removed from the tree all bud sticks and grafts should be wrapped in damp newspapers to prevent drying out.

TIME.

Grafts should be inserted in spring just before or at the time growth starts. Buds may be inserted any time during the period when the bark will slip readily. Last year's dormant buds may be inserted early in the season, or buds of the current season's growth may be used during the latter part of July and the month of August, at which time they have become fully matured in the southernmost parts of the Gulf States. The time may even be extended into September. Very many of these late-inserted buds remain dormant during winter and begin growth in spring.

BUDDING.

_Annular Budding._--A ring of bark about one inch in length is removed from the stock. A bud stick of the same size is selected, and from it a similar ring with a good bud on it is removed by cutting around the bud stick and slitting down the back or side opposite the bud. This bud is then placed in position on the stock. After the buds are in place, a piece of stiff wrapping paper should be tied around the stock just above the bud and allowed to flare out over the bud to protect it from the sun and wind. Preferably all buds should be inserted on the north side.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From Bul. 57, Florida Exp. Sta._

FIG. 20. Annular Budding. 1. Stock prepared for bud. 2. Bud. 3. Bud in place and tied.]