The Mechanics of Patch-budding.

After all has been said about cambium and stocks and scions and their relation to each other, there is still volumes to be written on the mechanics of pecan propagation. I do not want to scare anyone off from trying, but if there is any plant more difficult to propagate than the pecan, I have not yet found it. Even experienced propagators of general nursery stock have given up pecan budding as a bad job. On the other hand, a novice or "pecan crank" who is handy with tools and has the patience to study out the causes of his failures, may acquire the skill to obtain almost a perfect "live" of buds. This all goes to show that extreme precision is the password in the mechanics of patch-budding. In the first place, the knives should be of the finest quality so that they will hold a clean, fine edge. All cuts should be made with accuracy and precision, so that there are no rough edges and bias corners. The number of living buds will, under ordinary circumstances, be in exact proportion to the accuracy with which the bud patch fits the place made for it on the stock. The experienced pecan budder as he takes the bud off the stick can tell whether or not they will grow. If he tears the bark in cutting the patch, he drops that bud and cuts another; if the bud patch splits, he discards it; if his fingers touch the cambium or the bud patch falls to the ground, he wastes no time with it, but cuts another and another until he gets the conditions perfect. There is little use in tying in any bud that does not fit perfectly. For this reason it is desirable to have the bud stick of the same diameter as the stock. The bud patches from thin or small scions have to be stretched to fit and generally give a poor "live"; likewise, the buds from the more or less ridged portion at the top of the bud stick. The transfer of the bud patch should also be made quickly so that the cambium will have the shortest possible exposure to the air.

After Treatment.

The process of patch-budding is not complete even after a good "live" of buds is secured. It still requires some judicious after-treatment to get them into good normal growth. On account of the drastic heading back the tree has received, practically every dormant bud will be forced into active growth. These will push out so vigorously in spring that if not held in check, they may completely overgrow and crowd out the buds put in. Attention should be given during the early growing period to see that the buds put in have sufficient room for proper development. If all or too many of the seedling buds are rubbed off, the inserted buds will not be able to carry all of the heavy flow of sap and so may be drowned and killed. On the other hand, the inserted buds may not start unless forced by the extra sap obtained by rubbing off a portion of the seedling buds. A good deal of horticultural judgment is required to adjust the proper balance between the seedling and the inserted buds so as to get the best development of the latter. When the inserted buds are able to carry all the sap of the tree, all seedling shoots should be cut out and attention directed towards forming the new growth into a strong symmetrical top.

If conditions are favorable, there will generally be some nuts the second season. By the third year the transformation from the seedling to the named variety should be complete, and a good crop of high class nuts should be expected.

* * * * *

MR. POMEROY: Would it not be an advantage if two persons worked at the budding? After the cuts are made, one could be taking the part from the stock and the other taking the bud from the budding stick.

THE CHAIRMAN: That is a very good plan. One man could put in the buds and another man could tie—a boy handy with his fingers in making ties.

PROFESSOR SMITH: Why the superiority of beeswax to grafting wax?

THE CHAIRMAN: A good many budders object to grafting wax, on account of the oil therein contained being injurious to the trees. A great many people have dead trees as a result. Trees don't like oil, and for that reason we use beeswax and only the purest kind of beeswax. In fact, these pecan cranks who want to do things as they should be, like to examine the wax to see if there is pollen or bee bread or anything foreign in it.

PROFESSOR SMITH: Is there any particular time that is best for grafting?

PRESIDENT HUTT: Yes; in the early part of the season there is a very vigorous flow of sap and we find we lose more buds then than in the later grafting. In early grafting we put in drainage, just like the physicians, little tubes or something to drain out the moisture. We put in a little chip and tie over it very carefully so if there is any drainage it may escape. In the fall and late summer drainage is not necessary at all, and we really get better unions then when the trees are slowing down than we do in the spring when they are full of sap.

MR. STORRS: In selecting your buds, do you take them from trees that have borne, or from young trees, or indiscriminately?

PRESIDENT HUTT: We take them either from bearing or young trees. It is not important which, just so you get the right kind.

The important thing is to select good fresh active stuff, and particularly good sized scions and not small ones.

In budding we fit one side perfectly, and on the other side we leave a space of one sixteenth of an inch like a door. We didn't do that at first and we lost a good many buds because the active growth began on both sides. We had to leave a place there at the side, an expansion joint, to take care of that.

MR. STORRS: Then you fit them at the top and bottom and at one side?

THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, that's it.

THE SECRETARY: This is one of the most important papers ever read before this Association, and that is because the success of nut growing anywhere is absolutely conditioned on our knowledge of propagation. If the propagation of nut trees were as easy as the propagation of apple and peach trees, we would probably now have in the north as many orchards of good nut trees as of apple and peach trees. Any one who has tried this budding of nut trees will, I am sure, appreciate the difficulties that Professor Hutt has described and the pains he has taken in telling us about them. This is the beginning of the demonstrations in propagating. They will be continued tomorrow; we will have then three or four of the most expert grafters and budders in the country, perhaps, who will give further demonstrations.

I would like to ask Professor Hutt a question. I noticed that in putting in some Persian walnut buds this summer, all died except a couple where the tops accidentally broke off.

THE CHAIRMAN: That is explained by the illustration I gave of the wind blowing off all the shoots. Every one that was blown off lived even though some were badly torn. It was simply forcing the cambium at that point where it was needed. Mr. Roper had an experience of that kind.



MR. ROPER: We put buds on stock that was not very active, so the trees were cut back to six inches above the bud, forcing all the growth into the bud, and I suppose 95 per cent of those buds lived; on the trees not cut back the buds did not live.

THE SECRETARY: You have spoken about soaking the scions in cold water; does not that injure the buds? We have been told heretofore that keeping the scions in water started the cells into activity and rendered them less likely to grow; but perhaps that referred particularly to scions for grafting rather than budding.

THE CHAIRMAN: I would like to ask Mr. Wiggins that question, he is a specialist.

MR. WIGGINS: One of the dangers in keeping bud wood is that of keeping it in too much moisture. It does not require much to keep the bud plump.

THE SECRETARY: I understand the reason for soaking is simply to allow the bud to be taken off.

THE CHAIRMAN: Yes.

MR. JONES: In our experience the soaking of wood does not injure it for budding, but it does for grafting. You can soak the wood for budding all you want to, we have soaked it until the top bud came out.

THE SECRETARY: I am interested in knowing about this special wax cloth. Can it be used also in grafting?

THE CHAIRMAN: The other is much cheaper for that purpose. To just cover the thing up and exclude the air is all that is necessary in grafting. Liquid wax—four of rosin, four of tallow and two of beeswax—gives excellent results, but for budding purposes it is absolutely essential to have good clean wax, and for our purposes we have never found anything but pure beeswax would answer.

THE SECRETARY: There is a substance called "white wax" which pharmacists use in making toilet preparations—purified beeswax. It is pure white. Is that any advantage?

THE CHAIRMAN: I would not use it. It contains some paraffine.

THE SECRETARY: It should consist of purified and bleached beeswax only. It is more expensive than the ordinary beeswax.



[Read by title.]

UNUSUAL METHODS OF PROPAGATING NUT TREES

DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS, NEW YORK CITY

With the exception of the chestnut and the almond, much difficulty has been experienced in propagating most of the nut trees of temperate latitudes by budding or by grafting. This appears to be largely due to the slow formation of callus which is to make new cell connection between the cambium layers of host and of guest. In southern regions of the United States the union occurs much more readily than in the north. My experiments have been made chiefly with reference to developing methods of propagating nut trees in the north. All of the usual methods common among nurserymen have been practically failures, but certain unusual methods seem to promise success.

One unusual method which was suggested at last year's meeting by our member Mr. J. F. Jones, has given a good proportion of catches. This consists in using wood which is more than one year old for scions. Some of the scions of shagbark hickory from wood four, five, and even six years of age have caught. The chief difficulty has consisted in starting the buds of this old wood (latent buds) before vigorous sprouts from the stock diverted all the sap. It has been necessary to give much attention to the removal of these vigorous stock sprouts. I seem to have made the observation that if a small side branch from old wood carries a large terminal bud, this bud will start promptly when old wood constitutes the rest of the scion.

A method which I employed for the first time this year, which appears to have resulted in securing union between stock and scion, has been employed between different species of hickory trees. It belongs among the inarching methods in classification. It seemed probable that if a scion were to be supplied with sufficient water to prevent drying out, in advance of granulation-cell connection, we might meet with success.

The first line of experimentation with this idea in mind was conducted last year. The scion when grafted upon the stock was deprived of its top bud, and a small test tube filled with water and fitted with a rubber cap was adjusted over the site previously occupied by the top bud. This in practical working really did keep the cells of the scion alive and in good condition for a long time, but there was always a tendency for the water to become impure because of the growth of various algae and other microbes. Evidently the water when used in this way helped to furnish a balance between the negative and the positive sap pressures which occur under changing conditions of barometer and temperature, and which are influential in the matter of cellular repair. The introduction of germicides into the water of the test tube prevented the development of adventitious organic life, but at the same time seemed to interfere with normal cell activity at the junction of stock and scion.



This method served a purpose in advancing our knowledge of the subject, but not enough grafts caught to encourage me greatly. Following out the same line of thought, I began this year by making union between stock and scion according to inarch principles. The scion instead of remaining attached to its parent plant, according to former inarching method, had been transferred to the stock, leaving two or three inches of scion free below the point of grafting, as illustrated in the drawing. The proximal part of the scion was then inserted into a test tube containing water. In this case, as with placing the test tube at the top of the scion, difficulty was found in preventing the growth of microoerganisms in the water. The addition of benzoate of soda, borax, boracic acid, and sulphate of copper, while preventing the development of microoerganisms, seemed also to be objectionable to the physiologic processes of the plant. It occurred to me that the principle of the balanced aquarium might be applied, and acting upon this idea specimens of a pond weed (Utricularia) were introduced into the test tubes. This seemed to settle the water question completely, but it was well along in the summer before I made grafts and applied this principle. From one to four leaves, or parts of leaves, were left upon grafts which were applied to stocks according to this new inarching method. All of these leaves remained green until autumn, and fell with other autumn leaves of the stock. Two specimens which I have cut away for examination seemed to show a very good union between stock and scion.

I am presenting a description of the new inarching method promptly, before obtaining more extensive statistics, in order that members of this society may apply it experimentally next spring. Should it succeed according to present promise, it will allow nurserymen at least two months of grafting season, and they will not have to rush their work. In addition it will perhaps open up a method of grafting which may be employed freely with nut trees in the northern states.

Another unusual method for propagating nut trees consists in facilitating the development of adventitious buds from the roots of some particularly desirable tree. I do not know at the present time how many species of nut trees will develop adventitious root buds, as my experiments have been confined to roots of the shagbark hickory, beech, and hazel. Segments of roots of these three species when placed in sand, allowing an inch or so to protrude, will develop adventitious buds if they are kept warm and moist. Various lengths of root segments have been employed, ranging from two or three inches up to two or three feet. The beech and hazel will apparently start adventitious buds from almost any sort of root segment; but in the shagbark hickory, adventitious buds started best upon root segments which were more than six inches in length and more than half an inch in diameter.

Hazels may be propagated in an unusual way from the cuttings of branches, very much like roses, if these cuttings are placed in sand and kept warm and moist, although they do not strike nearly so readily as rose cuttings. I have not given much attention to this experiment in its practical bearing, but have simply observed that hazel cuttings will strike roots if they are particularly well cared for.

Experiments with hickories and with walnuts from branch cuttings were a failure, but they remained alive so well and formed such good callus, that I believe someone with steam-heated hot-house beds at his disposal may by experimentation succeed in propagating some of these trees by cuttings, particularly from herbaceous growth of the year, in August. As an amateur plant physiologist I foresee what the more scientific plant physiologists may do for this subject.

One unusual method for propagating nut trees may perhaps be described more correctly as a method for propagating unusual nut trees, and it opens a vista of distant horizon in horticulture. The discovery was due to an accident, and I claim no credit beyond recognizing the significance of an odd phenomenon.

Three years ago some pistillate chinkapin flowers which had been covered with paper bags, were left unpollenized because I did not have pollen enough to go round. The bags were left in place because I was busy with other things. When these bags were removed at the end of about three weeks, it was found that the flowers had set a full complement of nuts without having received pollen. These nuts continued to develop and were fertile. Some of them presented a peculiarity in growth of the cotyledons and germ, both of which grew and protruded beyond the involuere before the nuts were ripe, indicating that the germ had not come to a state of rest during its usual period in the nut. This freak appeared in only eight of the nuts, a larger number having normally resting germs.

In all of these nuts it seemed to me we were probably dealing with parthenogenesis. In order to make sure that no pollen had been carried in by any sort of insect, I made check experiments last year, covering pistillate flowers so carefully that there could be no question about their having received no pollen. It was found that the chinkapin would develop nuts freely in this way, and that the bitternut hickory, shagbark hickory, and pignut (Hicoria glabra) would develop nuts sparingly in this way.

I speak of the matter as parthenogenesis in advance of microscopic examination of the ovules,—which will be made next year; but parthenogenesis seems to be the most likely explanation. If this is the case, the embryo has not been formed by the conjugation of two gametes, as generally occurs in the algae and higher plants. It is possible that the embryo in the unpollenized chinkapins does not originate from the female gamete at all, but that it originates from a formative budding of other cells in the ovule. We can speak of parthenogenesis only when the embryo originates from a female gamete alone, i. e., without fusing of protoplasmic mass of the female gamete with protoplasmic mass of the male gamete.

Some of the nuts which I am calling parthenogens have developed plants this year. The chief peculiarity to be observed is great disparity in size between plants of the same age from the same parent tree. Some of them grow very much more rapidly than the average plant of the species, and others less rapidly when subjected to similar conditions of soil, temperature and moisture.

We assume in biology that one of nature's objects in having two sexes is to prevent early senescence of the allotment of protoplasm for a species, and to avoid undue intensification of characteristics of one parent. This is apparently nature's device for maintaining a mean type. For man's purposes we may now make artificial selection of individual plants which represent intensification of desirable characteristics of one parent. The growing of trees from unfertilized ovules will apparently open an entirely new field in horticulture, and no one can prophesy the result of selection of trees which present intensification of desirable characteristics of a single parent through several successive generations.



THE POSSIBILITIES OF NUT CULTURE IN UTAH

LEON D. BATCHELOR, UTAH

I suppose the majority of you have very little or no idea of agricultural conditions in Utah. Perhaps some think it is a desert. When I went to Utah, three or four years ago, the first thing that struck my mind forcibly in traveling around through the state was the absolute lack of any nuts. Being born and brought up in Massachusetts, I naturally noticed this, as one of the pleasures of my boyhood days consisted in gathering chestnuts, hickory nuts, hazelnuts and beechnuts. We found them all around the fence corners and pastures and in the woods, and I missed this in Utah, and it occurred to me immediately to look up the cause of the lack of nuts in the state and I found no good reason except that nature has not seen fit to plant nuts there. There is no reason in climatic or soil conditions which will make it impossible to grow many of the hardier nuts, and even, in the southern part of the state, to grow almonds and the tenderest walnuts. Climatic conditions are not unlike some of the best fruit sections in New York. Peaches and apples are grown successfully and as soon as you get down to the central and southern part of the state, many of the hardier European grapes are grown. In the extreme southern part you can grow any of the European grapes grown in California, so nothing in the way of climatic conditions exists which would prevent the development of nut growing in this state. The soil conditions vary widely, all the way from the sandy loams to the deep soils and gravels, and it is possible to find thousands of acres of deep, rich loam soil. Some of it is five to twenty-five feet deep. Of course the rainfall in that semi-arid region is insufficient for nuts but that can be supplemented by irrigation water, so that is practically no disadvantage. Since I have been there I have tried to interest some of the fruit growers in the planting of a few different varieties of the hardier nuts, and I have distributed among them some of the walnuts and this year I am bringing in some of the old shagbark hickory nuts from Massachusetts, and I am going to distribute them among my friends and acquaintances there to be used to raise shade trees—trees around the home and pastures—and I find there is considerable interest manifested in the last few years in nut planting. The nut industry has a little mite of a start there in a way—that is, there are a few seedling trees distributed from Logan on the north to Arizona on the south. Seedling Persian walnuts fruit from Brigham City on through Salt Lake and Provo, and practically all of the nuts that are produced there in the state are of seedling origin. It is reasonable to expect that some of the best grafted varieties will be very much better. It seems to me that the state has every natural condition for success in the production of nuts. If not in a commercial way we can do a great deal to our advantage in planting nut trees as shade trees. I simply want to let you know that there is a man out there in the mountain section who is interested in nuts and going to help the cause along.



THE DISEASES OF NUT TREES

M. B. WAITE, WASHINGTON, D. C.

In taking up the question of nut diseases it is hardly proper, perhaps, to take too narrow a view of it and I will, therefore, mention some of the other work being done here in Washington that is of interest to the Northern Nut Growers Association.

You all know of the pomological work being done on nuts, and I hardly need mention the work now being carried on by Mr. C. A. Reed, a member of this association. It might be well to remind you that the work was started by Mr. Van Deman some twenty-five years ago, and continued by Mr. Corsa, and a report was issued some fifteen years ago. It was taken up later by Mr. William A. Taylor.

The plant introduction work of Mr. D. G. Fairchild should be mentioned. He is scouring the world for new nuts of all kinds for the northern and southern, eastern and western United States, and introducing them into this country. The diseases of those nuts are studied by Mr. Orton in the Cotton Truck Division of our department.

Outside of the Bureau of Plant Industry also there is some work being done on nut trees. The insects attacking cultivated nuts are studied by Professor A. L. Quaintance, of the Bureau of Entomology, along with the deciduous fruit insects. The insects attacking forest nut trees are studied by Dr. Hopkins of the same Bureau in the laboratory that studies the forest insects. Of course the nut trees, as forest trees, are studied in the Forest Service about which you all know.

One thing more that I would like to say, in way of explanation or apology, is in regard to criticism of the Department for not more thoroughly attacking the filbert blight. Only forty-five thousand dollars are appropriated by Congress for the investigation of the entire fruit disease problem of the United States. That includes the great citrus industry; everything, in fact, from cranberries on Cape Cod and the mouth of the Columbia River to grape fruit in Florida or apples in New York. It includes the subject of all the nut diseases, and that means the problem of the diseases of the pecan, of walnut bacteriosis—that is a big problem—in southern California, and more or less in other parts of California, our great apple industry, the peach yellows, the pear blight, etc. When it comes to parceling that out it only leaves about three thousand dollars for nut diseases, and thirty-five hundred dollars for studying diseases of citrus fruits, so you must not be surprised that we cannot put a group of men on this problem and study it as it should be studied. It is a question of men and means.

Perhaps now some general information might be of interest and set you to thinking.

In the first place in every disease problem, conspicuously so with our fruit and nut diseases, there are two main classes of plants to be considered, our native plants and the foreign plants. The pathologist is always looking to the native origin of a plant in studying its adaptation to the environment in which it is attempted to be grown. A foreign plant may not necessarily be unadapted to another locality. The vinifera grape is thoroughly adapted to California and to much of the Pacific slope beyond the Rocky Mountains, but you know the vinifera grape has a hard struggle in other parts of the United States. This is not only a pathological problem but a physiological one. It cannot stand a soaking rain for two weeks at a time; it cannot stand so much water and humidity but it wants dry, hot sunshine continuously from the time it puts out its leaves in the spring.

Another phase still more interesting is the question of foreign parasites. Many of the worst diseases with which we have to contend are either native diseases attacking introduced plants, or foreign diseases attacking native plants. I will take that up in detail. Nature has fought the battle all out with the native parasites against the native host plants, so we don't have to do it. It's a case of the survival of the fittest. They have won, so when we are dealing with native plants against our native diseases, we have a condition that has been fought out in nature for nobody knows how many thousand years. The result is that unless we disturb the balance too much by cultivating great orchards of a thing that has been grown as scattered individuals, or overforcing it or selecting and breeding towards larger fruit without any regard to foliage and other characters we can go ahead with our breeding and selection and cultivation and trust nature to keep the balance to some extent. We have this natural balance in our favor in dealing with the problem of cultivating native plants. As an example take the pear and apple blight. The pear blight problem is one in which a native parasite on wild crab apples, which occasionally kills a few twigs here and there, attacks the juicy, tender, susceptible, introduced European pear and makes a very serious disease. It is a fight indeed to grow it in so much of the country that pear culture has been very largely suppressed over the eastern half of the United States and part of the Pacific coast. All this trouble has been caused by one little native microbe. Apple culture also, with certain varieties, has been seriously interfered with in some sections.

The apple cedar rust is probably the most striking example of a native parasite attacking a foreign host that we know of, and particularly so as the remarkable evolution in which the parasite has adjusted itself to the new host is taking place right now every year. The apple cedar rust is becoming a more difficult problem clear across the eastern United States to Nebraska. It has occurred as a serious disease since 1905 to 1907. As a botanical curiosity we have known it a long time, but as a serious disease, it is very recent, and nobody knows yet how serious it is going to be.

We have a very striking example of this introduction of a foreign plant and the plant being attacked by a native parasite, in the case of the filbert blight, and I am going to take that up later. The trouble is that we have brought into the United States a European filbert and it has been attacked by a parasite of our wild hazelnuts. The disease is very rare and is seldom seen on the wild hazelnut,—so rare that it was hardly known by scientific botanists, and yet it interferes with filbert culture in the eastern United States and is the one thing more than anything else to make filbert culture unprofitable. We have practically the same proposition in the walnut bacteriosis, not only in the northeastern United States, but in the best walnut districts of California. This bacterial disease which is undoubtedly a disease of our native walnuts—probably the native black walnut—occurs rather rarely, and so feebly developed as to be difficult to find at all on its native host yet it becomes the great serious disease of the Old World cultivated walnut.

Now, there again, it is not so much a lack of physiological adaptability, because the walnut is thoroughly adapted to our Pacific coast. I suppose most of you know that east of the Rocky Mountains, east of the Great Plains, we have a humid climate and winters more or less cold which corresponds, not with western Europe, not with Germany, England, Spain, France and Italy, but with China and Japan, with Asia, in its climatic conditions. The result is the Chinese and Japanese trees brought to the eastern United States grow well but may grow indifferently in California. On the other hand, the plants of the Mediterranean, France, Germany, Italy and Spain do not, as a rule, thrive when introduced into the eastern United States. There are a few exceptions, like the apple and perhaps the peach. These are not really natives of western Europe, but have been brought from the interior. They are more like the Japanese and Chinese plants which came in by way of Persia and which have been slowly adjusted to the conditions of western Europe. That adjustment has gone so far that the Persian type of peach does better on the Pacific coast than in the East. We are breeding a race of these fruits from China, the Chinese cling group, which does well in the eastern part of the United States, and we have from there a peach that is better for the country east of the Rocky Mountains than the ones that have been modified in Europe.

Now take the other side of this question, the foreign parasite—that is very unfortunate thing—over which we do not always have the control that we do with the foreign host. An equal disturbance of nature takes place when we introduce a foreign parasite, whether it is from a similar climatic region or one not so similar. The chestnut blight is a tremendous example of that sort of thing. This has come into prominence within a decade and it is one of the greatest problems in the pathology of the chestnut. That has turned out to be a Chinese parasite. It was found last summer by the agricultural explorer, Mr. Myers, but the fungus was studied out by Dr. Shear.

The three great American parasites of our native grapes are the black rot, the downy mildew and the Phylloxera, an insect pest, and they caused a great amount of study and work and investigation and great expense when they were introduced into France and South Germany and Italian vineyards, and were fought out only by what might be considered a magnificent effort on the part of the European governments, especially France. On our native wild grapes those diseases are almost trivial, and the wild seedlings in the woods are practically immune, but when we cultivate them and select the tenderer varieties, the black rot is pretty bad, especially on the Concord, and particularly when that is hybridized with grapes of European blood. Nevertheless, we have cultivated them in order to get the large juicy fruits. There are many more examples of this sort.

Now about the cultivated nuts. I wish I could tell you how much I think of the native nuts. I grew up in Northern Illinois and could go out on a day like this and gather two or three bushels of hickory nuts. How I enjoyed the black walnut, especially when it was just shriveled so it would leave the shell—it got rather too rich when it was dried and stale in the winter time—but how delicious it was when just wilted! Also there was the butternut and the wild hazelnut. I used to take a one-horse wagon into the woods on a Saturday and gather enough hazelnuts in the shucks to fill it; then we had hazelnuts all winter. So I am in full sympathy with the Northern Nut Growers Association and I would like to see those nuts grown, if not wild in the woods, at least in cultivation.

There might be a few things of interest to you about the wild hickory nut. According to Farlow's Index of North American fungi of twenty-five years ago, there have been thirty-seven species of fungi collected on that tree. Probably there are twice that number as a matter of fact, but mycologists have collected, described and named thirty-seven species on the Hickoria ovata, the plain shagbark, and the other hickories have similar numbers. The pecan has only three named species in Farlow's Index, but Mr. Rand has got together three times as many I think—I am not sure of the number.

Of the pecan diseases, the pecan scab is probably the most conspicuous fungus trouble. The pecan scab is the most typical fungus parasite of the pecan. It attacks the leaves, fruit, etc. It attacks the vessels or veins of the leaves and frequently enters by means of aphis punctures which break the skin so that there is no doubt but that this particular disease is favored by an aphis. We have investigated this disease quite carefully and carried on a series of spraying experiments for some three years and there is no doubt about our ability to control it. It can be prevented by spraying with Bordeaux mixture. You never can tell how many sprayings will be required. It may take three to ten sprayings to protect the nuts. The leaves are grown mostly within a month—the leaves are pushed out within thirty days and you can spray those leaves and protect them. The weak point in the treatment is that the nut of the pecan grows steadily from the time it starts to way into September. This makes a hard problem in spraying as the nut keeps expanding and forming a new and unprotected surface for an unreasonably long season and they are susceptible to scab attacks all the time, so you have the problem of spraying the nuts all summer. The spray does not stick very well on the nuts. The result is that we advise dodging that parasite by planting the non-susceptible kinds; it is much better and cheaper. It is certainly an encouraging thing that you can plant good varieties, that do not scab badly, and which at the very most require but two or three sprayings to protect them entirely, and in a great majority of cases, no spraying at all. Those already are the great nuts in cultivation, like the Stuart, the Schley and the Frotscher. Most of those good varieties will be occasionally attacked by scab because of a wet season, just as a variety of apple which is very resistant to apple scab is occasionally attacked by that disease.

The pecan has quite a number of leaf-spot fungi and most of those we have tested by spraying. These experiments have been made in the nursery where it is more convenient to spray and where the necessity is, perhaps, a little more pronounced, and there it is, undoubtedly, a proper practice to spray and fight out the pecan leaf diseases. Bordeaux mixture is the thing to be used on all occasions. The pecan resists copper poisoning almost as well as the grape and can be sprayed with safety.

If a pecan tree has crown gall don't plant it. All nursery trees should be rejected in planting if they show signs of this disease. The pecan has fungus root-rot and various wood rot fungi besides the leaf diseases. It also has several other troubles more or less serious. Occasionally in the pecan groves you will find these remarkably white mildewed nuts. That gives way to spraying. Another disease is an internal spot on the kernel which Mr. Rand has been working on and which seems to be due to a fungus. We don't know how to prevent that yet. The pecan has a fungus attacking it that is very similar to the bitter rot of the apple. The pecan anthracnose looks like the bitter rot, has the same pink spore masses and you will be able to recognize it. That may be prevented by spraying, but it is, fortunately, not a serious disease. The northern nut grower will not have so much trouble with that, as it is a southern disease. Here is a physiological trouble that causes blackening of the young nuts on the inside. It appears to me to be due mainly to wet weather, but I don't know its exact nature. It came primarily on a pecan raised in the semi-arid section of Texas and brought into South Carolina, and by the way you can get as much trouble in adapting trees from the western to the eastern United States as in bringing in trees from other countries. In parts of semi-arid Texas the trees are supplied with moisture by sub-irrigation and when we move those pecans to the humid East we get almost as much non-adjustment as when we bring in foreign things. I would suggest that these pecans from western Texas are the very ones to take to Utah and California rather than those from the eastern part of the United States. They are adjusted to dry seasons with moisture at their roots and you will get the best results from them when grown under irrigation.

I will now take up the walnut, Juglans nigra, the common black walnut. There are twenty species of fungi which are known to attack it. Quite a good many of these attack the twigs and cause them to die, and probably half are leaf diseases. One, commonly called white rust, a disease of the leaves, attracts mycologists in collecting, but it has never been of serious economic importance.

Now, as to the butternut, Juglans cinerea. It has about nineteen species of fungi known to attack it, but probably many more will be found when the nut is thoroughly studied.

Juglans regia, the cultivated Persian walnut, has only about twelve species of fungi recorded from it in this country. There are, undoubtedly, more to be found. Of these fungi the walnut bacteriosis, caused by a bacterial germ is more important than all the rest of the parasites put together we can easily say. The California walnut bacteriosis has turned up at various points in the East. The twig blight form of this disease is also prevalent in various states. The walnut blight or bacteriosis is therefore to be figured with in planting the Persian walnut in the East.

* * * * *

PROFESSOR SMITH: Is it worse or better here than in California?

PROFESSOR WAITE: There have not been enough walnuts grown here in groves to allow the disease to accumulate—to have a fair test for that, Professor Smith. I don't believe we know; but it is, undoubtedly, a parasite of our native black walnuts. It occurs in Texas and Louisiana, and I think we have it in or near Buffalo, N. Y., and in New Jersey, so if I were planting extensively I should expect that disease to be serious. That would be my forecast of the matter. The humidity and the cloudy weather in the East ought to be more favorable to the disease than the climate of California.

MR. JONES: For that reason I should think the disease would work fast in the Gulf Coast.

PROFESSOR WAITE: Yes, those specimens of yours seem to show a very serious condition.

We must not pass over the chestnut without noting that there are thirty species of fungi attacking it, and that does not include the new one, the bad one, the chestnut bark disease.

The filbert blight belongs with the diseases of the European grape and sweet cherry. The filbert is an example of a European plant introduced into the eastern United States attacked by a native parasite which almost drives it out of cultivation. In fact, there are so few filberts in cultivation even now that if we were trying to plan a spraying experiment on them we would not know where to find a plantation suitable for carrying on the experiment. If any of you know of any such plantations I would like you to let me know about them.

THE CHAIRMAN: We will have some in two or three years.

PROFESSOR WAITE: Here is a sample of the filbert fungus taken from our pathological collection. It shows the mature fruiting bodies of the fungus and it also shows that the twigs are killed. This fungus is known as Cryptosporella anomala. It was described as Diatrype anomala by Peck of Albany, N. Y., but was afterwards found to belong to another genus. There have been two or three articles published on it, the best one probably by Humphrey in Massachusetts. I have an abstract of that which can be copied in the proceedings, if you wish.

(See Appendix.)

The fact that this Cryptosporella is related to the black knot of the plum is an interesting feature; and that it attacks the growing canes during the growing season and fruit during the fall and winter. He suggests the treatment of removing all the infected branches during the fall and winter. I would add to that, complete eradication of all diseased branches of the host, and they are rather easily seen, in the fall as soon as the leaves are off—then a thorough spraying with strong Bordeaux mixture, at least 5-5-50, preferably stronger than that, of course burning all the material that you cut out. One is at a disadvantage if there are wild hazelnuts in the neighborhood. How to handle that problem I am hardly prepared to state; perhaps, by eradication of the wild hazelnut in the vicinity.

THE SECRETARY: I think that would be impossible in most regions.

PROFESSOR WAITE: Mr. Kerr had his growing on the eastern shore on an island where there are no wild hazelnuts and they were not attacked by the fungus.

A MEMBER: They are all dead now.

PROFESSOR WAITE: The number of sprayings during a season is an undetermined question. It will be necessary, probably, to spray two or three times. You can certainly protect the two-year wood in that way by making a fall spraying and a spring spraying. This will keep them thoroughly covered with Bordeaux mixture but whether or not three or four sprayings are necessary remains to be tested.

THE CHAIRMAN: Are any varieties of European hazels immune?

PROFESSOR WAITE: I have not studied them enough to answer that question. I don't know. They all seem to go down. Perhaps Dr. Deming can answer.

THE SECRETARY: I don't know.

PROFESSOR WAITE: I think that is all I want to say, except one thing, and that is about the physiological aspect of these, diseases. I touched upon that phase in discussing the matter of environment in the introduction of foreigners to places where they are not adapted. In some particular seasons and circumstances even the native trees suffer. One type of injury which has caused great trouble with the English walnuts and pecans, and also with apple trees and has also caused trouble with our native red oaks, is freezing when the trees are in a non-resistant condition. There is an example of this within three minutes' walk of this building. Here are the climatic and temperature conditions that bring about disaster, particularly if preceded by a dry season. Let us start with a dry season. The season of 1911 was conspicuously dry in this locality and the adjacent states of Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland, but about the first of September the rains came. Up to that time even the native forest trees such as oaks and chestnuts showed the stress of lack of moisture very seriously and were somewhat yellow and pale looking, mainly from water and nitrogen starvation. When the rains came the wilted trees all greened up, every tree in the parks brightened up, and we had fine growing conditions until October and no cold weather up to New Year's. It was warm that fall and even on New Year's day the warmth was noticeable. On the 12th of January we had the record cold temperature for this locality in the history of the weather bureau, except one year. We had fifteen or seventeen below zero and it was as low as thirty-eight in low spots in the Potomac Valley in West Virginia. Those trees had never been fully shocked into winter conditions. The cambium growth and sap flow had not been stopped and the physiological changes needed to get the trees ready for cold weather had never occurred. They were not ready, not only as to the bark, but in the trunk and wood. The result was that the trees were seriously injured, the less matured twigs died back, and the trees were frozen on the trunks down to the ground line. In the freeze of 1904 in New York I was surprised to find that the peach trees were not all killed. They were frozen through and through and yet the trees did not die. The question of winter injury hinges not alone on low temperature, but it also depends on the condition which the tree has reached when the cold strikes it. Now, to tell you still further about what that cold wave did, I will ask you to look at that row of red oaks near the Smithsonian which I just alluded to and see the big ribs of dead bark where the cambium layer has been shocked, and checked in other places. You will find these trees ribbed and ridged to about half way down the row. Those trees are subject to special disadvantages; they lack subsoil drainage and they have an excess of manure draining down through the paving stones. They have an excess of nitrogen and lack of drainage. The subsoil is a heavy clay. That brings up another thing that I want you to notice in regard to winter injury. Plant not only hardy varieties, but select localities with good subsoil drainage. The walnuts and hickories, belonging to the two great families of juglans, and the oaks and chestnuts, want good subsoil drainage. Where the underlying rocks are vertical the conditions are ideal. They do not like a heavy clay subsoil, but do best where water and excess nitrogen can get away.

The general summary I want to make is this: Nut trees have a large number of fungus parasites. In a few cases the native fungus parasites attack European or Old World species and varieties to such an extent as to make very serious problems, so much so that they can not be regarded as solved, the walnut bacteriorosis and filbert blight being examples of these. On the other hand, most of the native fungus parasites of our native trees are not to be feared as enemies of these trees, not only in the northeastern United States where this body is endeavoring to further a good cause, but over the whole eastern United States. These parasites in some cases may be serious enough to justify spraying and other lines of treatment, especially in the nursery. On the other hand, considering the nature of nut trees and considering the results of work on the pecan scab, the object of the nut grower should be to breed and select as far as possible resistant sorts, to work on and select native species and hybrids particularly where the native trees will give the necessary hardiness, immunity and resistance. The outlook, therefore, is promising for the cultivated varieties of hickory nuts and walnuts that I know you are all working for. Foreign parasites are always dangerous. This chestnut blight fungus comes into any such scheme as that like a bombshell. When it comes to an introduced parasite like that we can not tell what will happen. I thank you for your attention.

* * * * *

THE CHAIRMAN: I think everybody here will agree with me, when you come to look over this list of amounts appropriated for work in nut culture investigation, that there will be no further criticism of the Department of Agriculture from any member of the association for not doing more in the interests of the nut grower.

THE SECRETARY: We are all indebted to Professor Waite for his clear way of stating facts, for resisting the temptation to give a technical talk and for enunciating principles of wide applicability.

This question of the blight on the hazel is a most important one for the northern nut growers. Mr. Reed was telling me yesterday about a man from California who went out near some city there and bought 10 acres of land at six hundred dollars an acre, planted almonds and in a few years had the place paid for and was making a good income, two or three thousand dollars a year from his ten acres of almonds. We can do almost that in the East, I believe, if we can cultivate the European hazel. If it were not for this blight, we could have splendid crops of the hazel. If the government would grant larger appropriations for nut culture investigations it might enable us to find a way to control this disease. Dr. Morris is breeding hazels, however, and hopes to get one which will be immune.

PROFESSOR SMITH: It is a great pleasure to listen to a man who knows what he is talking about. I figured out some years ago that I was going to be a teacher and I decided that I would like to have a chestnut farm also. I got along very nicely, planted my trees and then the chestnut blight came along, and I regard the business, at least as to profits, as in abeyance. We are in a period of particular danger from the importation of foreign plants; we are bringing in perfectly innocent-looking things from other countries which are causing us great damage. I want to suggest to any one here who wants to plant an orchard, to plant two kinds of trees. If my nut orchard had been planted with something besides chestnuts, I would now have that something else. I would suggest the possibility of having two things on the same ground—say chestnuts and English walnuts—so if the planter finds he cannot raise one he can still have the other. Then he will not be in the same place I am with my chestnuts.

THE CHAIRMAN: I understand we have Mr. Fullerton of Long Island here, and we would be pleased to have him give us some of his experiences.



MR. FULLERTON: I just came in to see what you folks are doing and I don't think I can pose as a nut expert. I live on an island that has a great many varieties of nuts on it that have become native. We have quite a plantation of hazelnuts; nobody knows who planted them. They are used by nurserymen to fill orders. Also quite a plantation of magnolias which came from the South a couple of hundred years ago. They are thoroughly acclimated. We have also some of the very largest—and I am going to catch it here because I have never used a tape line—we have some of the very largest and oldest of the Persian walnuts in the United States, which produce annually a big crop of the so-called "English" walnuts. The trees produce the largest walnut I have ever seen, with the thinnest shell. They have been there about one hundred and fifty, two hundred and fifty or three hundred years. They are very large, larger than the black walnuts. Whether they were planted or not I don't know. Their history is probably this: Long Island was a sea-faring community a few hundred years ago. These sailors who went out from the island, some of them, loved nuts and they would bring back from other countries nuts or other plants, and now we have a most remarkable mess of trees. We have planted the Japanese walnut, I don't pretend to know which variety, and it began yielding the third year and has yielded every year since, bearing nuts in bunches like grapes.

THE CHAIRMAN: Is it a heart-shaped nut?

MR. FULLERTON: Yes. We have some pecans and some almonds. Against the advice of everybody we planted some almond trees; they started to bear in their third year. The trees are one solid mass of glorious big red blossoms every spring. They bear very heavily and have for three distinct seasons. Hard winter or easy winter, nothing has affected their bloom and they have never had a particle of San Jose scale until this year. The almond grows all over the island. Also the pecan. I planted five varieties of pecans and they are still living and growing very slowly. They have been moved three or four times. Last year we planted seven varieties including the Van Deman and the Stuart and one Indiana variety. One of these trees died and the others were killed back, but they have sent up big shoots.

Two years ago an old fellow came up from the middle of the island to see if our pecan trees were the same kind as his. His story was very remarkable. He didn't know anything about trees. He went into town one day and got interested in pecans and bought all the different kinds he could find, all the different shapes. He didn't care what they were—didn't care whether they came from Canada or Mexico—he was the kind of a man who would plant bananas,—and he planted all those pecans and he told me that every one of them grew. He said they all produced nuts.

MR. POMEROY: The first Persian walnut nursery ever established in the United States was at Flushing, Long Island.

THE SECRETARY: I should like to ask how old and how big are the pecan trees that are bearing?

MR. FULLERTON: I think he said seven or eight years.

THE CHAIRMAN: The insect question is one of great interest. Professor Quaintance can give us a good insight into the insects that attack pecan and other nut trees.



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO NUT TREES

A. L. QUAINTANCE, WASHINGTON, D. C.

I have not very much to say because we have not yet accumulated much information on the subject of nut insects. I am glad to appear before you, however, and to assure you that attention is being given to the insect enemies of nuts by the Department. We are not nearly so far advanced in the subject, however, as Professor Waite, since our specific study of nut insects began only, this last spring. At that time we established a laboratory in the South, especially to study pecan insects, as the demand for information concerning these pests has been very strong. The Bureau of Entomology, however, for a number of years, has published more or less on nut insects, as opportunity offered, and I think I should call your attention to a few of the papers treating of nut insects, and which I recommend that you obtain, if possible:

The Nut Feeding Habits of the Codling Moth, Bulletin 80, Part 5, Bureau of Entomology.

The Fall Webworm, Farmers' Bulletin 99, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

The White-Marked Tussock Moth, Farmers' Bulletin 99, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

The Bag Worm, Circular 97, Bureau of Entomology.

The Apple-Tree Tent Caterpillar, Circular 98, Bureau of Entomology.

Nut Weevils, Circular 99, Bureau of Entomology.

The Red Spider, Circular 104, Bureau of Entomology.

The Leopard Moth, Circular 109, Bureau of Entomology.

The Walnut Borer, Fifth Report, U. S. Entomological Commission, page 329.

The Oak Pruner, Circular 130, Bureau of Entomology.

Insects Injurious to Pecans, Bulletin 86, Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station.

Insects of the Pecan, Bulletin 79, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station.

The Walnut Weevil or Curculio, Twelfth Report, State Entomologist of Connecticut, page 240.

The Walnut Bud-Moth, Twelfth Report, State Entomologist of Connecticut, page 253.

The above list will furnish information on most of the important nut insects thus far known. Inasmuch, however, as the walnut, pecan, etc., are native trees, it is probable that when these nuts are cultivated they will be attacked by many of the insects which prey upon them in nature. This we have found to be true to a considerable extent in the case of the pecan. Many of the pests of hickory, for instance, are becoming important enemies of the pecan.

We have few requests for information as to the insect enemies of the hazelnut or filbert, practically none as to the almond. I surmise that there is comparatively little injury to the two former crops in the United States, and that in the case of the almond it is largely free from insect pests. The secretary has suggested that I make reference particularly to the insect enemies of the walnut. We have had complaints of severe injury to walnuts in California from the codling moth and walnut aphids. In this state and in the arid sections where walnuts are commercially grown, the codling moth, the well-known apple pest, has turned its attention to the walnut, and under some conditions does serious injury. If walnuts are growing adjacent to pears, the marketing of the crop, which occurs about the time the second brood of larvae is at its height, deprives these insects of further food and they turn their attention to the walnut. The walnut plant lice in California have just been investigated by an agent of the Bureau of Entomology and we now have a paper in press on these insects. We think it probable that spraying will be a satisfactory remedy where the trees are not too large.

In the East injury is confined largely to certain caterpillars infesting the foliage, as the white-marked tussock moth, the fall webworm, a species of Datana, and occasionally reports of severe injury from red spider are received. Rather recently a good deal of interest has been aroused in the so-called walnut curculio by reason of its attacking the shoots and leaf petioles of the Japanese walnut. It attacks also other species of walnut, including the English walnut and the butternut. This pest has been well treated by Doctor Britton in his report as State Entomologist of Connecticut for 1912.

While pecans are perhaps not of particular interest to growers of nuts in the Northern States, yet brief reference will be made to some of the insect enemies of the pecan. There are two excellent publications on this subject, as indicated in the list of titles above. I should urge all interested in nut culture to obtain these papers, since some of the insects treated are quite general feeders and may be expected to occur on most all varieties of nuts.

The secretary also has asked that reference be made to the hickory bark beetle. This is essentially a forest insect and has been treated by Doctor Hopkins in Circular 144 of the Bureau of Entomology.

Attention should be called to an insect rather recently introduced into the New England States, which will probably attack nut crops, namely, the so-called leopard moth, already indicated in the list of titles on nut insects. This pest will prove a difficult one to control, as it infests the trunk and larger limbs.

The whole question of the control of nut insects is complicated by the often enormous size of the trees, so that operations, effective in the control of insects, say affecting the apple, are not entirely practical. It is a point to be determined whether it will be profitable to spray large nut trees, such as the pecan. In some instances we believe that it will be, and the Bureau of Entomology now has in Florida one of the large power spraying outfits, formerly in use in the gipsy moth spraying, to determine the cost and benefits of such work.

In concluding these brief remarks I wish again to reiterate my pleasure in having the opportunity of appearing before you, and to assure you of the interest of the Department in the insect problems confronting nut growers. Nut culture is bound to increase enormously and insect injuries will probably correspondingly increase. I believe, however, that these injuries will be found controllable, as has been determined to be true in the case of practically all important native or introduced crops.

* * * * *

THE CHAIRMAN: We are glad that Professor Quaintance has told us about the different bulletins. The secretary will have a list of these. I am now going to call for Mr. Rhodes, who is an expert propagator of Persian walnuts, and he is going to give a demonstration on methods of propagating the walnut.

MR. RHODES: I am employed over at Arlington and I have been helping Professor Lake in his work there at the farm. Last year about the 15th of July we put in about seventy-five grafts using the cleft graft, and the side graft, and at the same time we put in some chip buds. Professor Lake has a little instrument which is known as a chip budder. We used an ordinary bandage, such as surgeons have, which we dipped in a mixture of about two parts wax, one part tallow and one part rosin. We put the bandage in when the solution was at a boil—that made it sticky enough to hold to the bud, and then we cut a hole large enough for the bud to come out. We found budding at that season, in August, more successful than grafting. The stocks were about two inches in diameter; we put in grafts anywhere from two to three feet above the ground, sometimes as many as three grafts. In a great many cases we lost all, and in some cases we lost two. I tried also bench or root grafting, and put in about fifty along about December, and when I took them out in the spring, the scion had covered up nicely, but we had a very dry spell, and through lack of attention, as much as anything else, we didn't get a graft to pull through. I am going to try the same thing this year. Along in July I took several cuttings and put in, and out of ten I got one to live. One proved successful in the soft wood and this coming year I hope to get some of the hard wood kinds to pull through.

In grafting I always try to get the cuts as smooth as possible and to make them in one cut, because if you make a second cut you are bound to make some unevenness in it. These cambium layers have to fit right up flush with the edge of the bark. Then we usually wrap them in raffia. We used also what Professor Lake called a bark graft.

We got about 10 per cent of those to live. We had better success with the cleft graft and the side graft. In cutting the scion for this side graft I usually cut one side a little longer than I do the other which makes the scion lie closer to the stock. We leave the top on. You can put several on each of those stocks.

We were pretty successful with that sort of a graft. For my own personal use, I like this graft for walnuts, and I think we will eventually have better success with that than with any other type.

We put the majority of the grafts in I think about the latter part of June or July.

I have been afraid to cut the top off before the scion has started to grow. There is too great a flow of sap for the small scion to take up and as a consequence it drowns out the scion.

PROFESSOR SMITH: How far toward the center did you make the cut?

MR. RHODES: About two-thirds of the way through.

THE CHAIRMAN: You go past the middle?

MR. RHODES: Yes. The only thing you have to be careful of is not to cut too far, as then there is danger of breaking off.

MR. JONES: Do you have any particular length for the cut on the scion?

MR. RHODES: No. A great deal depends on the cut you make into the stock. I don't like to cut the scion any further up than the depth we go into the stock wood.

MR. JONES: Any other rule?

MR. RHODES: No, it all depends on the size of the stock. If you get a large stock you can cut it larger.

THE CHAIRMAN: We thank you for these explanations. Mr. Rush is an experienced propagator of walnuts and pecans and I want to give him some time to show his methods. I will ask Mr. Rush to give his demonstration.

MR. RUSH: I am very glad to show you some of my methods. The only difference between mine and Mr. Hutt's is that he is right-handed and I am left-handed.

The propagation of the Persian walnut may be divided into three divisions, the preparative, the operative and the nursery, and one is as important as the other. Good wood, good weather conditions, good technique and after this you must nurse them.

(Mr. Rush gives demonstration of budding.)

THE CHAIRMAN: This is the method I outlined yesterday, but I think Mr. Rush has it better in his hands than I have in my head.

MR. RUSH: It is practically the same. I have a good knife with two parallel blades that can be taken off, and put on the grindstone, and got as sharp as a razor. For some things I use a surgeon's knife.

THE CHAIRMAN: We have with us another very expert propagator from a little farther south. I am going to ask Mr. Wiggins to give us the benefit of his observations along this line.

MR. WIGGINS: I have not had experience in propagating walnuts, except in an experimental way. I have had some experience in the propagation of pecans. Much depends on the condition of the stocks. If they are in a good healthy, vigorous, growing condition, you will do better.

(Gives demonstration on grafting.)

The best time in South Carolina is in August and early September. I use but one method of budding and grafting. It is the only one I am successful with. What you call chip budding, I call bud grafting. I get 95 per cent of chip buds to take in the spring. I get the wood when it is dormant. I can find dormant wood even in May and June. I usually get it earlier than this, but this year it was in May. Part of these trees were in the shade in the orchard and I got the wood from them. Ninety-nine out of one hundred were dormant, and about that many lived. The wood was thoroughly dormant and plump. I cut it right out of the orchard in May or June and got them to live. Of course if you cut scions from the ends of branches, you haven't a chance at all.

One thing to remember in the chip graft is not to cut your chip too thin. If you do you will lose a good many. I go right into it. If you do it right it will hurt your finger so you can only work for two or three hours at a time. It won't dry out so quickly if you cut it thick and will stand a better chance to live. I try to get the scion to fit the first time.

THE SECRETARY: What do you tie it with after you put on the waxed cloth?

MR. WIGGINS: I use a strip of common cloth out of the store. Your fingers will be waxed enough in working so that the strip does not need to be waxed. You tie it after wrapping it.

A MEMBER: Would you protect that with a paper bag?

MR. WIGGINS: No.

A MEMBER: Do you place it on the north or south?

MR. WIGGINS: The point that decides the exact place on the stock is the smoothness and greenness and health of it. I pick out the cleanest and best places. The whole top of the tree is above the graft.

A MEMBER: When do you cut off the tree?

MR. WIGGINS: According to the weather. It takes two or three or four weeks for proper healing. I open up a few and if they are all right, I open all of them. Just as soon as it heals, I cut the top off.

PROFESSOR SMITH: What is your ordinary practice in cutting scions?

MR. WIGGINS: Last year I was sick and got behind with my work so I cut them each day as I needed them. I usually cut them earlier and bury them in a shady place to keep the wood dormant. I can get 100 per cent by chip grafting and in no other way. I don't use the cleft graft at all. The better fit you get in this method of propagating the higher the percentage will run. If you make a fit that is not quite a fit, you will be astonished to lose about 95 per cent. If you are just a little more careful, you might get 100 per cent to grow. I can tell by the way it feels when it is right. I use a crude method but succeed with it. I do four hundred in a half day. What is the use of going to another method when I get good results with this?

PROFESSOR SMITH: You say a half-inch scion on a four-inch stock?

MR. WIGGINS: Yes, on a four-inch stock you get a cut an inch or one and a half inch wide. You have a large space that is not covered at all.

PROFESSOR SMITH: They live?

MR. WIGGINS: Yes, of course.

PROFESSOR SMITH: Only touch in spots?

MR. WIGGINS: On top and bottom and on one side. I get cambium together at top—I am careful about that—and then I get on the left side an exact fit but not on the other sides.

THE CHAIRMAN: Have you had much experience with walnuts?

MR. WIGGINS: No. I should think the best results with walnut as well as with pecans would be by cutting the scion wood the year before.

THE CHAIRMAN: This is certainly a very interesting discussion, but I have another grafter here yet. A demonstration by Mr. Jones will close this morning's session.

(Mr. Jones gave a demonstration of cleft grafting stating that he used that method practically altogether.)



APPENDIX

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER

Receipts: Dues $200.00 Gift 200.00 Sale of report 10.00 Advertisement 15.00 Miscellaneous 7.15 $432.15

Expenses: Deficit $17.54 Reporting convention 47.13 Printing 355.74 Postage 66.34 Typewriting 19.14 Advertising 6.79 Expense of secretary to Albany 10.05 Expense of secretary to New York 2.75 Miscellaneous 11.72 $537.20

Deficit $105.05

Through the generosity of one of our members the secretary was enabled to issue the annual report, to have other printing done, and to represent the Association at Albany at the conference on the hickory bark borer called by the Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of New York.

It is not likely that this gift will be repeated and it will be a great misfortune if the means for publishing the annual report are not found, as well as for taking up the present deficit of over a hundred dollars.

Of course our membership is increasing rapidly and, in the years to come, we should have members enough to pay our annual expenses, including the publishing of the report. The secretary would like also to have enough to issue reprints or bulletins from time to time.

The secretary asks for instructions in the face of this difficulty and would suggest the appointment of a finance committee, not to include the secretary, and to be composed of persons who will work.

There might be a similar hard-working committee on programme. The secretary is willing to be the clearing house for the Association, but would like to have something to clear besides the cloudy results of his own labors.

The secretary has a list of over six hundred names of persons interested in nut culture, which he thinks should be circularized from time to time with reprints, or bulletins, setting forth the importance of, and the advances in, the art of nut culture.

The secretary would be pleased if each member would send in a new member during the year, would send an advertisement of his own, or some other person's, business for the annual report, and would pay his own dues promptly on the first intimation from the secretary. Members whose dues for the year are not paid will not receive the annual report and, after a decent interval, their names will automatically drop from the roll of membership and not appear in the next annual report.

Except from a financial standpoint the Association may fairly consider that it has had a prosperous year. Our present membership is 134, an increase of 48 over the number reported at the last meeting. (At date of going to press the membership is 143.)

Three members have resigned and we have lost two by death, Mr. George W. Gachwind of Brooklyn, N. Y., and Mr. W. D. Ellwanger of Rochester, N. Y. (News came during the meeting of the death of Henry Hales of Ridgewood, N. J., the first honorary member of the Association. An account of Mr. Hale's work with nuts appears elsewhere in this report.)

Thirty-one members have failed to pay their dues and have not been sent copies of the report. The secretary asks permission to drop the names of these members from the rolls and that a rule be formulated to guide his action in the future.

That interest in nut growing is increasing is shown by the issuance this year of three catalogues devoted entirely to nuts for northern, or northern and middle, planting. One nurseryman grows nothing else. All are members of this Association and the nuts propagated have all been shown at our meetings.

The work of the secretary during the year, besides the preparation and issuing of the annual report, has been given to answering a large and increasing correspondence, by personal letters and our various bulletins and circulars. The resolutions introduced by the Committee on Resolutions at the last meeting, and ordered by the Association to be printed and distributed as directed in the resolutions, were sent out by the secretary. A number of very complimentary letters in reply to this were received.

Arrangements and announcements were made that all members were to receive a subscription for one year to the American Fruit and Nut Journal as a part of their membership, and that new members would receive in addition copies of both the reports that we have issued. This proved very attractive, but unexpected complications have arisen that have kept the secretary busy explaining why he has been unable to fulfil both of these promises.

At the suggestion of Professor Hutt a circular was issued to gather information about the Persian walnut tree in the North. Replies are still coming in and the information obtained has not yet been collated. It shows already, however, that there is a great number of trees in the North; that there are two large centers so far shown, one about Rochester, N. Y., and the other in Ontario, Canada, on the strip of land between. Lakes Erie and Ontario, known as the Niagara Peninsula. In both localities reporters speak of hundreds of trees. One grower near Rochester has 225 seedling trees about 27 years old from which he is marketing nuts.

The original trees in these locations are often spoken of as grown from seed brought from Philadelphia at the time of the Centennial Exposition. Another center seems to be about Lancaster, Pa. There it appears that the original trees were brought in by the Germans. Perhaps the Philadelphia trees above referred to had the same origin. This would be a good subject for investigation by some of our Pennsylvania members.

There is a tree, said to bear good crops of good nuts, at Newburyport in the extreme northeastern corner of Massachusetts. (Specimens were shown at the meeting.)

If not already undertaken by the Government agents, I would suggest the making of a map on which all known bearing trees of the Persian walnut in the East should be located. If not in the Government plan the secretary would under-take to make such a map. In any case he is very anxious to learn as much as possible about these trees and he urges the members to furnish him any knowledge about them that they may have. Circulars to be filled out will be sent on application.

A member has offered to give $25 as a prize to be offered by the Association for the best shagbark hickory nut sent in. This offer came too late to make suitable announcement this year, but it is too valuable not to be accepted and encouraged, and I would suggest that either a special committee be appointed to devise means of offering prizes, with the above mentioned sum of $25 as a foundation, or that the matter be referred to the committee on promising seedlings.

THE CHAIRMAN: I think we should take some action on the secretary's report. It is before the association. What shall we do about it?

PROFESSOR SMITH: I move that the situation of the finances be referred to the executive committee.

A MEMBER: I second the motion.

THE CHAIRMAN: It is moved and seconded that the matter of the financial standing of the association be placed in the hands of the executive committee.

(Motion was carried.)

THE SECRETARY: The next is the election of the Nominating Committee.

THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any nominations for Nominating Committee?

MR. JONES: I place in nomination Professor Smith, Mr. C. A. Reed, Mr. Rush, Mr. Ridgway and Mr. Albert Stabler.

MR. POMEROY: I second that nomination.

THE CHAIRMAN: It has been moved and seconded that these gentlemen be appointed as a nominating committee to nominate the officers for the ensuing year.

(The motion was carried.)

RESOLUTION ADOPTED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION NOVEMBER 18 AND 19, 1913

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Northern Nut Growers Association be instructed to keep "an accredited list of northern nut nurserymen," such list to be made up by the Executive Committee of this Association of such nurserymen as the Executive Committee may feel satisfied make no misrepresentations as to whether the trees they sell are budded and grafted varieties or as to the specific varieties which they sell, or any other statement calculated to mislead the purchaser to his detriment. The said Executive Committee is to have full authority to make any necessary inquiries into the reputation or practices of any nurseryman, and shall take steps as soon as practicable to make up such an "accredited list," and such list shall consist not only of nurserymen who belong to this Association, but of any nurserymen engaged in the sale of northern nut trees. Such accredited list of nurserymen shall be furnished anyone upon inquiry. The Executive Committee shall have full power in making up this list of accredited nurserymen and shall add to the list from time to time such names as in their judgment shall be entitled to be entered on this list and shall drop from such list any names of such persons as in their judgment at any time violate the standard required for admission to such accredited list. Any nurseryman whose name is to be dropped shall first be notified and permitted to appear before the Executive Committee and be heard and shall, if he chooses, have the right to appeal from the action of said Committee to the Association at any annual meeting, and the majority vote of said Association shall be binding.



PRESENT AT THE FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION

AT WASHINGTON, D. C, NOVEMBER 18 AND 19, 1913

Members:

Batchelor, Leon D., Logan, Utah Close, C. P., Washington, D. C. Coleman, H. H., Newark, N. J. Crockett, E. B., Lynchburg, Va. Deming, Dr. W. C, Georgetown, Ct. Druckemiller, W. C, Sunbury, Pa. Fullerton, H. B., Medford, L. I. Hume, H. H., Glen St. Mary, Fla. Hutt, W. H., Raleigh, N. C. Jones, J. F., Willow St., Lancaster, Pa. Kinsell, Mrs. Ida J., Rock Mills, Pa. Lake, E. R., Washington, D. C. Mayo, E. S., Rochester, N. Y. Pomeroy, A. C, Lockport, N. Y. Prange, Mrs. N. M. G., Jacksonville, Fla. Reed, C. A., Washington, D. C. Ridgeway, C. S., Lumberton, N. J. Roper, W. N., Petersburg, Va. Rush, J. G., West Willow, Pa. Smith, J. R., Roundhill, Va. Stabler, Albert, Washington, D. C. Storrs, A. P., Oswego, N. Y. Wile, Th. E., Rochester, N. Y. Van Deman, H. E., Washington, D. C.

Others:

Editor Life and Health, Washington, D. C. McHatton, Prof., Georgia Frost, Mr., Boston, Mass. Stabler, Mr., Jr., Washington, D. G. Evans, Mr. Lee, Mr. Collins, J. F., Washington Wiggins, J. B., S. Carolina Waite, M. B., Washington Quaintance, A. L., Washington Sober, C. K., Pennsylvania Davis, Mr. Rhodes, Mr., Washington, D. C. Mittlepage, Mrs. T. P., and friends Pomeroy, Mrs. A. C. Reed, Mrs. C. A. Metcalf, Dr. J. B., Washington Roberts, Horace, Moorestown, N. J.



EXHIBITS

By George W. Endicott, Villa Ridge, Ill.

The Boone chestnut and unnamed Boone seedlings, Nos. 4, 6, 7, 8, 22 and 24. Staminate parent of Boone. Chinquapin x Boone; Boone x Rochester; Boone x Ridgeley; Boone x McFarland. Blair, Burrill, best native, Champ Clark, McFarland, President, Ridgeley, Reliance, Rochester, William P. Stark.

C. K. Sober, Lewisburg, Pa.

Paragon chestnuts.

Mrs. Annie E. K. Bidwell, Rancho Chico, Chico, Cal.

American sweet chestnut, Italian chestnut, butternuts, black walnuts, I. X. L. almonds, seedling filbert, Bidwell pecan.

D. H. Hulseman, Lakeside, Wash.

Chelan and Hulseman walnuts.

Fancher Creek Nurseries, Fresno, Cal.

Eureka, Placentia Perfection, Neff's Prolific walnuts.

A. C. Pomeroy, Lockport, N. Y.

Pomeroy walnuts.

C. S. Ridgeway, Lumberton, N. J.

Ridgeway walnut.

E. S. Mayo, Rochester, N. Y.

"Thompson-Avon" walnut. Unnamed seedling.

W. S. Devoe, San Luis Obispo, Cal.

Santa Barbara walnut.

Frank P. Andrus, Almont, Mich.

Unnamed seedling walnut. Butternut.

E. R. Lake, Washington, D. C.

Gingko nut. Pili nuts.

Arlington Farm.

Juglans sieboldiana. Juglans australis, probably from South America. Twenty-three exhibits of almonds from different California growers.

J. G. Rush, West Willow, Pa.

Lancaster, Nebo, Hall, Rush and Kaghazi walnuts, Barcelona filberts, Weiker and La Fevre shellbark hickories.

Prof. V. R. Gardner, Experiment Station, Corvallis, Oregon.

Eleven varieties of filberts.

W. C. Reed & Son, Vincennes, Ind.

Beard, Indiana, Kentucky, Letcher, Luce, Major, Niblack, Posey, and Warrick pecans.

T. P. Littlepage, Boonville, Ind.

Kentucky pecans.

J. F. Jones, Lancaster, Pa.

Lancaster and Holden walnuts, Weiker shellbark and Kirtland shagbark hickories, Barcelona filberts and photographs of the Lancaster tree. Ninety-six exhibits of southern grown pecans by various exhibitors.

WILDER MEDAL FOR EXHIBITION OF NUTS

The American Pomological Society awarded the Northern Nut Growers Association a bronze Wilder Medal for the exhibition of nuts at the fourth annual meeting of the Association at Washington, D. C, November 18 and 19, 1913.

GEORGE W. ENDICOTT—THE BOONE CHESTNUT

E. A. RIEHL, ALTON, ILLINOIS

George W. Endicott was born in Belmont County, Ohio, July 25, 1837. He joined the Forty-eighth Illinois Infantry in 1861, serving nearly three years, when he was discharged owing to wounds received. Then he went to farming in Wayne County. In 1867 he settled at Villa Ridge, Ill., devoting himself to fruit and vegetable growing, in which he was eminently successful. Mr. Endicott was a man of strong character and a leader in his community. Energetic and up to date in all his operations, he procured and tested all kinds of new fruits as fast as introduced. He died at his home November 14, 1913.

Of the greatest interest to the nut growers of this country was his work of creating the Boone chestnut. About 1888 Mr. Endicott conceived the idea of producing a cross between the American and Japan chestnuts and getting one combining the sweetness of the native with the large size, early ripening and young bearing habits of the Japan. He encountered an obstacle in the fact that the Japan blossomed before the native and it was not until seven years later that he found a native blossoming early enough to make the cross. In the spring of 1895 he carefully hand pollinated some Japan Giant with the pollen of this early flowering native, sacking the same to prevent other pollen reaching them. The seed so produced was planted in the spring of 1896 in rich soil that had been used as a vegetable garden. One of the seeds so planted bore six burs in 1897, eighteen months after planting the seed and has produced crops every year since as follows: 1898, 1 pound of nuts; 1899, 3 pounds of nuts; 1900, 5 pounds of nuts; 1901, 6 pounds of nuts; 1902, 8 pounds of nuts; 1903, 12 pounds of nuts; 1904, 17 pounds of nuts; 1905, 25 pounds of nuts; 1906, 31 pounds of nuts; 1907, 43 pounds of nuts; 1908, 50 pounds of nuts; 1909, 56 pounds of nuts; 1910, 5 pounds of nuts (early bloom killed by late freeze); 1911, 80 pounds of nuts; 1912, 76 pounds of nuts; 1913, 140 pounds of nuts—a grand total of 568 pounds from the time of planting the seed seventeen years ago.

This nut is of very good quality, has large size, ripens early and comes into bearing very early. Has been well tested and proven to be one of the best chestnuts we have. It has but one fault, it is very hard to propagate by either budding or grafting. Mr. Endicott and others have grown many seedlings of Boone, but none are in all respects as good as the parent.

Mr. Endicott did a good work in producing the Boone chestnut and deserves the thanks of the nut growers of this country.

LETTER FROM G. H. CORSAN, TORONTO, CANADA

My place of 15-1/2 acres just west of Toronto, is in a small valley containing sandy, gravelly and clay soils, while the creek bottom land is rich black humus. My efforts are purely experimental and the losses do not worry me as I simply wish to know what will succeed in this district. Peaches and grapes grow on my place.

Last winter I bought twelve Paragon chestnut trees from Colonel Sober. All twelve are alive and looking well and this fourth day of November are just turning color and dropping their leaves. You will probably remember that of the three samples that Colonel Sober displayed at the convention last year I took the walking stick. I had to go to Columbia and other South Carolina points for three weeks afterwards, so that it was well into January before I finally got the "walking stick" planted. Well, it is also alive and has that well-known Paragon form, five fan-shaped shoots above the graft.

I planted seeds from all over the world, in rows, and of ten bushels of black walnuts only five nuts sprouted. On the other hand, every pecan came up. Hickories and English cob nuts behaved a little better than the black walnuts. I slip a little collar of tar paper over each little tree to protect it against field mice, rabbits and ground hogs. Red squirrels trouble me the least of all the pests as I cannot keep them out of my double section wire rat trap, and the pet stock men give my boys 30 cents apiece for them.

I also bought a dozen Pomeroy walnuts last winter for experiment. They are all alive but the extraordinary late and early frosts were hard on them and nipped them down three inches from the top where they again sprouted out. This occurred to all but one tree which positively refused to take any notice of either the late or the early frost. I consider this one tree worth many times the money I paid for the dozen.

My experiments are only two years old but I will mention that my English filberts or Kentish cob nuts are doing well, also my Battle Creek persimmon seedlings that I planted in an exposed position two years ago.

Seeds from those Battle Creek persimmon trees can be procured from Dr. J. H. Kellogg by writing him. They are the two most northern persimmon trees which I have discovered so far. The fruit is good to the taste and the trees have lived through terribly cold winters. I mention this as many of you are fruit growers also and want to get persimmon stock in order to graft the Japanese persimmon on. The female tree every second year is loaded to the point of breakage and should do well for stock.

Speaking about procuring seeds from dealers, I can get here and there for one cent as much as I have to pay the dealer a dollar for. For instance, while passing through Phoebus, Va., I asked a lady what she wanted for Juglans sieboldiana and she said 5 cents a quart or 35 cents a peck. She only got 16 bushels from a 20 year-old tree! They were bigger and better specimens than I got from Japan at about five nuts for one dollar, postage extra.

Then I wrote to a gentleman who had a small tree of Juglans cordiformis in Ontario and he said that he only had a bushel which he was expressing to me and to send him a dollar! Think, and the Japs sent me three nuts for one dollar!! A lady at Niagara Falls, Ontario, told me that she had a little tree of J. sieboldiana so I asked her the price and she sent me half a bushel and said to pay the express charges which were a quarter!

And it is the same way with these forest seed merchants, they send me for dollars the seeds of pinus edulis and pinus Koriensis that it would take a powerful microscope to discern, and I afterwards bought of a fruit merchant in Milwaukee a big glassful for a nickel!

Roadside planting is a failure, for, besides rodents little and big, there are all kinds of animals from sheep to horses to destroy them, so that I have to plant all my trees at least four feet within my fence line.

Juglans Mandshurica seed I find impossible to procure so far. There are two magnificent trees in Toronto planted by an old man who is dead now. These trees show no sign of ever having been winter killed and are 13 and 19 feet high but have not fruited yet. The leaves are very long and the trees resemble the stag horn sumach, except that they are distinctly Juglans in appearance; but the growth of the year's shoots is thick and long like a coppice growth.

LETTER FROM W. C. REED, VINCENNES, INDIANA

The Indiana pecan tree bore a splendid crop of about 3-1/2 bushels. The Busseron also had a good crop on all the old wood and some on the new wood. The Busseron is just recovering from a severe cutting back by the owner and should be in shape to give a good crop next year. Other pecans in the vicinity bore a very light crop.