s. Almost any size
tree can be topworked but, of course, the larger the tree the more
difficult the operation. A young tree, from two to five inches in
diameter, can be sawed off four or five feet above the ground and
topworked by grafting from two to four scions on it, by the slip bark
process. If the tree is larger than five inches in diameter, it is
better to go up to the first branches, saw off part of them and proceed
just as if each branch were itself a small tree. If the tree is a large
tree, with a number of branches or prongs, it is best to work part of
them one year and leave the remaining branches to maintain the root
system. It would probably kill a large tree to cut the whole top off at
one time. I have seen trees, two feet in diameter, successfully
topworked. It sometimes happens that the scions placed in the tree, in
the spring, for some reason or other, do not grow. The tree then sends
up nice green shoots that later in the season can be budded into just as
if they were small seedlings. The wild black walnut trees, growing
around the fields and hills, can all be very easily topworked to the
English walnut by the slip bark method. The scions must be dormant and
the tree starting into active growth.

The wild hickory, wild pecan and wild black walnut trees, offer the best
field for profitable work along this line. We have topworked a great
many hickories to pecan, but we do not expect permanent satisfactory
results. The experience of the pecan on the hickory is not very
satisfactory. The hickory is a dense, hard wood, that has a short
growing season, and matures its nuts early; the pecan is of the coarser,
faster growing wood, whose nuts grow until late in the fall. This
inconsistency of the growing habits of the two trees prevents the pecan
top on the hickory from producing normal crops of nuts. The pecan
topworked to the pecan, however, is a perfect success and there is no
reason why the wild hickories of all descriptions cannot be successfully
and profitably topworked to the better varieties of the good shagbark
hickories. I believe that there are great opportunities in the state of
New York for successful nut culture by utilizing the wild black walnut
trees and the hickories. I have seen hundreds of English walnut trees
growing around Rochester, some of them bearing perfectly wonderful crops
of walnuts. I am surprised that the people in this section have not
availed themselves more of the opportunities