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late. If one is impatient to determine at once which ones are to be valuable, he can hurry the process by grafting a number of cuttings from young seedling trees into the tops of larger trees which are already bearing--labeling each graft, so that he may keep track of the seedling stock from which it came. It is possible to put one hundred or more seedlings in the top of some stock tree at one time. One reason for delay in propagation by grafting is because the hickories like many other trees are slow in making repair of wounds. Grafts usually perished before being accepted by the stock under grafting methods that were in common use. The best step forward in grafting method for hickories is one that I obtained from Mr. J. F. Jones, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He tells me that he obtained the method from its originator, Mr. E. A. Riehl, Godfrey, Illinois. This consisted in covering the entire graft, buds and all, with melted grafting wax and including also all of the wound and wrapping of the stock. The buds make their way through this grafting wax without any difficulty, but the grafting wax used by Mr. Jones contained lamp black and that used by Mr. Riehl consisted of a beeswax and rosin mixture. It was found that these seemed to be applicable in the North but not farther south in the hotter sun. Examining into the reasons for this, it seemed to me that in all probability the black grafting wax used by Mr. Jones and the brown or amber grafting wax used by Mr. Riehl, would naturally allow the heat rays of the sun to pass through to the graft while halting the actinic ray of light. The latter is extremely valuable for promoting the activity of chlorophyl, which acts only in the presence of light and in the best way in the best light. The heat rays might have certain destructive qualities. With this theoretical idea of the situation in mind, I employed melted paraffin in place of the grafting wax, covering the scions completely as well as the wound in the stock and the wrappings. This immediately proved to be a success. In fact, it appears to have changed the entire subject of grafting nut trees in such a way that any intelligent boy employing this method can now do better hickory nut grafting than would have been possible at the hands of an expert two years ago. The melted paraffin fills the interstices in which sap might collect and ferment, but at the same time, hardening so quickly that it does not introduce the danger
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