Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1913-06-05
Nv ISAAC MOTES.)


how to graft successfully is badly |
handicapped in his farm operations,
especially If 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 II cut back to a |
point near the graft for the first three |
DR. four years. Some trees are quite
expensive and it takes lot Of money |
to build up large orchard of them
And the more varied the assortment OF
trees in your orchard the more neces-
sary is it 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 1t
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 1t 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.
1t 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
live 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 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 ali the time; but
4
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
] falx h..
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 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 chance to swell.
There are many ways of budding
and grating trees, but intelligent hor-
ticulturists believe that root grating
gives a larger percentage of living
trees, especially with those rather
difficult to make live. Amy 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 a
larger percentage of living trees by
grating onto the roots or upon stocks
beneath the surface Of the ground.
Some orchardists dig the stock entire
ly out of the ground, and by having IT
up in their hands they can make a
more accurate joining of the graft with
the stock, getting the cambium layers
exactly opposite each other Besides
II is more convenient to wrap the
graft after the joining has been eff
fected Also in this way they can
cut off large lateral roots, II desired,
and get five. six or perhaps dozen
roots large enough to graft upon. thus
getting number Of trees from one
large stock and its root system. This
is possible only in early spring graft
ing. for In midsummer the stock must
of course not be dug up, but should
Handling Sugar 6eets.
| Cultivation of sugar beets should