It shows one year grafted
walnut trees, and bench grafted walnut trees covered by tumblers six
inches high, grafted by the "Treyve" process.

Beginnings in the United States

The first grafting of black walnuts thus comes down to the beginning of
the 20th century.

William P. Corsa[3] with the USDA gave much information from replies to
a questionnaire sent out in 1890, on nut culture and grafting, including
bench grafting, in 1896. Mr. G. W. Oliver[13] in 1901, describes a
method followed by Corsa in bench grafting walnuts and hickories. He
used an incubator. Mr. Jackson Dawson[15] previously, working with
hickories, had success in the greenhouse.

Andrew S. Fuller[4] in his Nut Culturist, published in 1896, advises
that the South had not yet perfected pecan grafting. This seems to have
been a challenge to Mr. J. F. Jones[1 & 7], for we find he moved from
Missouri to Monticello, Fla., about 1899, and specialized in pecan
grafting. He developed the slanting cut he later advocated in walnut
grafting. However, again showing "there is nothing new under the sun"
the author's uncle, Owen Albright, is credited by Corsa[3] with
suggesting it in 1894, and it is also suggested by Mortillet[11] in
1863.

Grafting Wax

The necessity to protect graft unions by excluding air and moisture from
cut plant tissue led to the use of balls of mud in ancient times. Later,
various kinds of waxes were used.

In 1879, Prof. J. L. Budd[2], head of the Horticultural Department at
Iowa State College, using resin and linseed oil, side grafted 150
varieties of Russian apples received from the interior of Russia in the
winter of 1878. A boy swabbed hot wax on the grafts, using a lantern
heater not too different from those used nowadays.

Mr. F. O. Harrington and Mr. S. W. Snyder, Iowa nurserymen were teaching
grafting to members of the Iowa Horticultural Society in 1900, 1901 and
1902, at their annual meetings. Mr. J. B. McLaughlin[9], College
Springs, Iowa, speaks of successfully grafting walnuts in 1900 in a
discussion of the horticultural society led by Van Houton, Edwards, etc.

In 1909, Mr. E. A. Riehl[14] gave a talk before the Iowa State
Horticultural Society in which he advocated covering the whole walnut
scion, buds and all, with liquid wax. His first Thomas grafted tree is
in a ravine back at his barn at Godfrey, Illinois. It was planted about
1902[12].

In 1910, the Northern Nut Growers' Association was organized by Prof.