Mexico Missouri message., 1913-06-05
BY ISAAC MoTEs1

The man who doesn't understand
how to graft successfully Is badly
handicapped in his farm operations,
especially II he has an orchard of
fruit trees and a grove of nut trees,
and he is missing some of the keenest
enjoyments OF agricultural life.
The farmer who can do grating and
make his trees live can build up fine
orchard with very little expense for
trees, after once getting few speci-
mems of each variety of nursery.
bought trees to live, for most trees
are benefited by liberal pruning. and
some will be better IL cut back to a
point near the graft for the first three
Or four years. Some trees are quite
expensive, and 1t takes lot of money
10 build up large orchard of them.
And the more varied the assortment of
trees In your orchard the more neces-
sary is 1t that you know how to graft
in an expert manner, for some of the
trees, such as pear, Japanese persim-
mon and pecan, will be found more
difficult to graft than others, and it
takes an expert to get results with
some Of them.
1t means much for the improvement
Of our native and exotic fruit and
nut trees that every farmer should be
an expert at grating, for by this
means he experiments by grating diff.
ferent species upon each other, there
by creating many new and valuable
hybrids. II is by expert grating that
all the delicious peaches. apples, pears,
pecans and other valuable fruits have
been originated and improved. 1t is
because Mr.. Burbank is an expert
CRATER" that he has been enabled to
accomplish such wonderful things In
the creation of new fruits and vege-
tables.
One reason the paper shell pecan
industry in the south doesn't grow any
faster than it does. considering the
wonderful possibilities for success in
this branch of horticulture, is that so
few farmers understand grating, but
must depend on nurseries for these
trees, some of which sell for more
than a dollar each, and then after
they are planted a good many die, and
the buyer becomes somewhat dis
couraged, when If he were expert at
grating he could soon fill vacant
places in his orchard with his own
gratis taken from such Of his trees
as were living, to be placed upon hick-
DRY or native Seeding PAGAN stocks.
II is in trying to get start with some
sensitive tree like the pecan, where
grating is difficult, and where many
grated trees from nurseries fail to
i've when planted by the purchasers,
that we see the necessity for every
farmers understanding how to do his
own grating.
Most OF the early horticulturists did
their grating In the late winter. just
before the buds began to swell, and
as a result very many of the gratis
never took" and made trees, because,
on account of the unfavorable condi-
tions-the continuance of cool wealth.
er-these CRAFTS might remain there
anywhere from a week to two or three
weeks before the weather got warm
enough to force the buds out, with
evaporation going on all the time; but
now the intelligent nurseryman and
fruit growers graft these most sensi-
tive trees in summer, when the sap is
flowing up freely in the stocks.
The grating wood is cut in the win
ter and kept dormant until June or
July, then as the sap is flowing stead
lily up in the stocks to feed the green
foliage and tender, growing twigs, it
Immediately forces the buds on the
graft to open, when Joined to these
stocks, and starts the new twig to
growing.
The winter cuttings are kept dor
mant by storing them in an ice house,
in sawdust, where the temperature is
low enough to keep the buds from
swelling. and where there is little
moisture to Keep them from getting
too dry. In the north where so many
farmers have ice houses on their
farms where they store ice In winter
for use during the heated season. il
is very easy to keep these cuttings
dormant. In the south some nursery
ment who do a great deal of summer
grating bury these winter cuttings in
the ground in January or February,
thus keeping them alive and yet with
out giving the buds a chance to swell.
There are many ways of budding
and grating trees, but intelligent hor-
ticulturists believe that root grating
gives larger percentage of living
trees, especially with those rather
difficult to make live. Any good meth
cd of joining may be followed, for
root grating means only that the
stock is cut below the surface of
the ground. While early spring graft
ing Is not recommended as strongly as
summer grating, yet IL the early
spring grating is done you will get
larger percentage OF living trees by
grating onto the roots or upon stocks