"But that is a matter we shall have to examine again in ten years, first as regards vegetation and then in 20 years as concerns fruit production."
Since these experiments date from '36 at the time of the Grenoble Congress we have only 13 years to wait to learn what sort of fruit these trees will bear and only 5 to see how they behave vegetatively.
It remains, then, only to wish "good luck" to our kind and devoted correspondent and to thank him for his valuable documentation.
Pictorial Record of Grafting at Climax, Michigan
W. M. BECKERT, Jackson, Mich.
Top-working black walnuts to Persian Walnuts has long been practiced by various members of this organization. It is hoped by this series of Kodachrome slides that a record of such top-working by one of our members would be of interest and also show the details of just how the work is done under actual field conditions.
Mr. Gilbert Becker, of Climax, Michigan, has been quite successful in top-working black walnuts. Needless to say, these pictures were taken to show how an expert goes about grafting black walnuts. Mr. Becker was contacted as to when he would do his grafting and he mentioned that on May 80, 1953, he would be top-working his stock. Plans were made to be present on that date and we were fortunate in having bright weather for taking the pictures.
The first two slides show Mr. Becker removing the scionwood from his storage pit, selecting the scions and preparing to go out to do the grafting. On the way to the trees that were to be grafted, the pictures for the next two slides were taken to show the stage of leaf development and the length of the catkins of the Thomas Black Walnut, so members in other sections of the country can see how far out in leaf the Thomas variety was when the grafting was done.
The following series of slides show how Mr. Becker top-works the black walnuts.
First, removing that portion of the stock, note he used a pruning saw, makes a cut at the point where he wants to graft. He uses the bark slit method. The scion is shaped by one stroke of the grafting knife; a long slanting cut is made and the scion inserted in the stock. Just prior to placing the scion, the bark of the stock is slit, two cuts with the point of the knife, approximate width of the scion and down along the bark to the length the scion is to be inserted, then the scion is placed. The next step is to cut off the little sliver of bark which is pushed out, at the point where it does not contact the scion. In this tree, two scions were placed, the scions being wrapped tightly with waxed muslin which was prepared beforehand, using strips about one-half inch wide. Enough was used to firmly bind the scions to the stock. Please note that a small piece of wax muslin was placed on the inside of the scion to prevent the wax from going down between the scion and stock. The final step is waxing the scion and brushing with hot wax, in order to prevent the scion from drying out; to provide shade, Mr. Becker, in this case, used grass and made a hood over the scion, tying it with string.