Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-29

| of the other. With me both have succeeded.
and to ABOUT the same degree Both of
| these methods are too well understood to
call for any description at my hands. l in-
variably graft at the collar or earth-line,
with the stock sitting undisturbed exactly
where it grew from the seed. \ nursery
man would take up the stock and do his
| grating in the shop, but am satisfied that
| transplanting is not good for the pecan, so
| graft on the stock where it grew.
| Having correctly arranged my graft l
| draw on the soil almost to the top of the
| cion and give it no further attention. II
very seldom fails to take and grow off
! splendid if the work has been carefully and
| correctly performed.
! 1t might be well for me to state that the
| cions should be cut during the inactivity of
| the tree in winter, tied in small and close
bundles and buried well down in the ground
TO there remain until just before buds are
beginning to swell on the pecan trees. This
is'the nick of time TO graft, and everything
depends upon the right time. If the buds
are already swollen and the sap started
before the graft is set there will be failure,
and If the graft is set too long before this
period the ciOn will be too long exposed to
the effects of evaporation or drying. out, =
and there will be more failures than would
result was the grating done, say one week
before the time for the buds to begin
swelling.
am no nurseryman, and have no inter
est in this matter beyond the pleasure il
affords me and the promise of some direct
benefit to myself to eventually grow ont OF
it from operations on my own place. What
l say here is specially fot the public good,
and in this particular interest l do not hes
ltate TO assert that there is nothing what
ever in the way of having pecan grove Of
any variety desired through propagation by
grating. ANY man Of fair hardness can
do his own grating, and of course grated
trees cannot do otherwise than come tree
to the variety from which the CionS were
taken. No tree unites better at the graft.
| now have trees eight years old from the
graft, and so perfect has been the junction
that were you to dig down around them
you would find no scar or anything else to
indicate that theC had ever been grated at
all.
Some writers have recommended grating
the pecan on the hickory, but for the lire of
me l cannot see why. 1t is as easy 10 raise
pecan stocks as hickory stocks, and it
stands TO reason that the future tree would
be more natural with root and top of the
same species. l have never attempted to do
otherwise than graft the pecaa on the
pecan.
There is no risk whatever in making an
attempt to graft your pecan grove. Would
advise planting good pecans for Stocks in
the first place. If you graft these aad the
graft fails YOU will have lost nothing, for
the stock Will at once send upa new sprOut,
which will grow with such rapidity that in
three years you could not tell it from thu
young trees, planted at the same time that
had not been cut down for grating pur-
poses. The gro vth of the root fully gov
ems the growth of top in the pecan tree
AS the root so will soon be the top. / have
seen pecan sprouts ten feet hi%h that had
grown in a single season from the stump of
a pecan tree cut down wherc. clearings were
being made. c. DE KAY.
De Soto parish, La.
The amateur who has never studied such
things might be interested in description
of the grating methods mentioned by our
correspondent. To spl,ce-graft on his plan
you would need to have the stock aud cionk
as near the same size as possible. The ciont
is always wood of the previous seasons
growth with good, living buds upon it. 1t
is cut in lengths of from six to eight inches,
and a prominent and lively bud is left with
in an inch of the top end of he section. The
stock is the young tree still in the grounp
just as it grew, and from one 10 two Yeas
old.
Dig the soil from around the base or coIlar
of the young tree and with 4 sharp knife
cut 1t off, making sloping cut upwards
about one inch long. About midway of
this slopine cut make a cut downward just
little across the grain, then from the top
of the original slope conc down with cut
to the bottom of this second cut. This will
bring out a wedge-shaped piece and leave a
V-shape notch in the stock. Now slope the
bottom end of the cion to conform with that
of the first slope made on the stock, and
then make two more cuts similar to
those already made on the stock. Thiy
will leave a tongue running down from tide
cion, which fits nicely into the V-shape notch
in the stock. Be careful to have the fit
perfect, and above all be sure to have the
bark of the cion and that of the stock come
exactly together. 1t is best if the bark can
be made to fit perfectly on both sides, but
should this not be possible on account of
variation in size make sure that the fit is
perfect on one side. Wrap DIT of cotton
cloth nicely around the joint, and bind it
firmly with strip of cloth string. Some
persons wax or oil the cloth, but we do not
consider this st all necessary. Draw on the
soil almost to the top of the cion as directed
by our correspondent, and your work is
done.
In cleft-grafting you dig around your
stock, as il the first case, and then cut it,
squarely off little below the surface n
the ground. Drive a thin linife-bla d9sp->
into the stock, splitting it squarely across
the middle. Into the middle of the split
shove a narrow hardwood wedge to hold it
Il little open. Now shave the lower end of
your cions to long wedge-shape, not dis-<1
turbing the bark on the edges of the wedge
and shove two of the wedges thus made
down into the split of the stock-one on
either side of the hardwood wedge # tE
stock is large enough to receive two. See
that the outside bark of the stock and that
of the cion fits nicely. To make sure of
this it is well to lean the cion outward a
little to make sure of a crossing of the bark ]
az some point. Draw out the hardwood
wedge and then, having mixed little GSyl
to stiff mortar, pack it carefully around
the graft until ball is formed about the
size of mans fist. Draw on the soil as
in the first case, and there is nothing more
to do.
If the stock is too small TO receive two
cions one may be set and wedge set on
the other side to make the stock fit nicely |