cent that takes is high. This is an
important factor; you must have good wood. You are running just a little
on the small size. From a quarter of an inch up to--. I never set a
scion over about 9/16. That is just getting into the rough ... It's hard
on the tool and rootstocks.

MEMBER: Do you wax the graft?

MEMBER: By all means you use the proper wax.

MEMBER: Did you ever try not to?

MR. GERARDI: Yes, if favorable weather permits. I use this Acme
compound. Last season, it was a little stiff and I mixed a little oil
and it cut my rubber bands too quick. That brush wax is about as good as
you can get, but customers come in and I am called away and someone is
always interfering with the work. I was trying to get a wax that I could
just drop and it would be ready when I picked it up again. It is
beginning to be an assembly line production. You can go faster if you
have a helper or two to do the tying and waxing.

MEMBER: I have a rather crude scion storage method. I have dug out in a
hill a reservoir that I keep ice in. If you could keep it at 32 to 40
degrees from the time it is cut in February, or the first part of March
and then store it in this until the grafting time, it will keep readily.

MEMBER: In California I built a little house and there was room enough
to put in at least 40 bushel boxes, 900 pounds of ice and I packed
grafting wood in boxes and kept it until July.

MEMBER: The ice keeps up the humidity.

MEMBER: There are a lot of successful methods. It is what is available
for you.

MR. WILKINSON: I have had very little experience in propagation of
chestnuts. Mine has been limited. I shoulder my scions. I like to
shoulder. My percentage of take varies with the conditions, sometimes
it's fairly good and sometimes not so good. I have a specimen union of
two inches in diameter and you can see what a nice union it makes.
Ordinarily I have had very good success with chestnut grafting.

DR. McKAY: We have done some work on budding chestnuts but it hasn't
been successful. We have had indefinite results. As Mr. Stoke says,
grafting is so much more simple. We realize more work should be done on
budding. We simply do our propagating the way it is easiest. Until the
time comes that we have got more information on budding we will go along
as we do now. One of the difficulties is that the wood is fluted and it
is hard to get a good bud fit. It doesn't make for a good fit. We
carried out a little experiment o