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 184 FACTS ABOUT CROP TREES

because of the wide range of territory suited to the black walnut.

THE TECHNIQUE OF GRAFTING AND BUDDING WALNUT TREES

This technique has been worked out to the point where it is safe to say that trees of any desired variety can be had in any desired quantity in a comparatively short space of time. Many private experimenters scattered over the country are successful in grafting walnuts, both black and Persian, and also many varieties of pecan and hickory. Success in grafting nut trees is by no means as sure as with apples, and the degree of success seems to vary very greatly from year to year, probably due to the fact that we do not yet know or observe all of the controlling factors.

This technique seems to have been first explained for the layman in terms easy to follow in a book called Nut Growing by Dr. R. T. Morris (Macmillan, 1921).* I think I am right when I say that all of the essentials of his methods are explained in the Appendix of this book. I have myself taught the art to half a dozen farm hands. I would not hesitate to take any dozen illiterate mountaineers, good whittlers or fiddlers, fiddlers preferred; and if they tried, I could make eight or ten good (but slow) grafters out of the dozen in two hours' time.

People in many lands have successfully followed the directions in Dr. Morris' book, but some have not been so successful.

THE VARIETIES

Mr. Willard G. Bixby, of Baldwin. Long Island. New York, has probably done more scientific work on varieties of nuts than any man in the world (page 29). Following the example

6 Any one interested in nuts should read the book because of its valuable ioe It is also worth reading because the author has a sense of

The U. S. Department of Agriculture also has a bulletin on nut propagation.