but the experiments conducted
by myself and Mr. R. L. McCoy, at Lake, Ind., who worked in conjunction
with me, have demonstrated that they can be successfully propagated. A
number of points, however, must be carefully observed in this work.
First, in reference to grafting: The grafting should be done on northern
two-year-old stocks. One-year-old stocks can be used, but two-year-olds
are thought to be better. The stocks must be grown from northern
seedlings. There is no place in the North for the southern stock, and
right here let me suggest that the individual who buys northern trees
grafted on southern stocks or southern trees grafted on northern stocks
is throwing his money away. I set fifty trees last fall of the "Indiana"
grafted on southern stocks, and the first freeze that came promptly
killed them all. They put up a few new sprouts last summer, but finally
the roots rotted, and this fall I dug them up. I have a neighbor who put
out an orchard of southern grown trees. Some of them seemed to grow all
right for six or seven years, and then froze down to the ground, and so
far as I have been able to find out, experiments with southern trees in
the North have been practically a waste of time and money. So it is
necessary to bear in mind that these northern varieties must be grafted
or budded on trees grown from northern seed.
The proper time for grafting in the Evansville latitude is the last week
in March and the first week in April. The scions must be cut from
thrifty growing trees and must be used immediately after they are cut.
Experience has shown that scions kept in cold storage or stratified in
sand for any length of time lose a very large part of their vitality,
and success with them is very limited in that section. Last year I cut
most of my scions in November and December, stratified them in sand
until spring, and my percentage of success with them was very small,
while on the other hand Mr. McCoy used scions directly off the tree and
had a satisfactory stand. I am of the opinion that it will be proven
later that the best method of grafting in the North is to graft above
the ground and tie paper bags over the scions for two or three weeks
until they start into growth. Our experiments so far have been confined
to root-grafting, and while it has proven fairly successful under proper
conditions, yet I believe that grafting above the ground will prove more
successful. We have not done much budding in our sect
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