Dr. Morris: I think that somebody who was not a beginner might ask that quite as well. I have tried almost all the methods employed by the experts and have gotten down to very simple principles. If I am going to get fifty, sixty, eighty or ninety per cent of catches in hickory as we sometimes do I have to use methods that are very simple. For limbs that are small not larger than one's finger the plain cleft graft is good enough and I like as far as possible to choose a branch that is about the diameter of the scion. If the limb is larger in diameter than the scion I make my cleft to one side so that the cambium line of stock and scion will correspond. It is important to have cambium layers together. By all means the best feature of all in my grafting work is what I call the bark slot. This bark slot consists in making two parallel lines in the stock bark the width of the scion. I turn down that tongue of bark and stick in the scion. I turn back the bark again and bind all with raffia. That is the bark slot graft. The bark slot is by all means the most successful method that I have ever employed. What are the objections to it? Not so firm a hold on the stock as you will get in a cleft. What are you going to do about it? Put on good strong braces for the growing stock. I find it does not do much harm to drive galvanized nails right into the tree to hold the brace, three or four nails right into the limb, and then tie the rapidly growing shoot to the brace. If I do not do that the new shoot blows out very readily when I use the bark slot. In other words you will catch more by this method and lose more unless you give the grafts a good deal of attention.
Prof. Close: How do you trim the scion?
Dr. Morris: I trim it mostly with one good long cut on one side and sometimes turn it over and make a little nick on the other, but one good long cut is usually all that it needs.
Prof. Close: Supposing the bark does not peel?
Dr. Morris: If it does not I think the chances are against its catching your graft. I have done all my grafting until this year at times when the bark peeled but this year I carried it up into September after the bark had set and I am trying to see if I can get a catch then. In that case I take a chisel and chisel off the bark where it is hide-bound. The experiment may be a failure but I have had so many failures that they are sort of a pleasant experience.
Mr. Foster: In the cutting back I understand that you prefer to do so when the tree is dormant. Then in the spring when you start your grafting do you leave that cut just as it is or do you cut it off again?
Dr. Morris: These are very important questions that are coming out. When you have sawed off the limb trim the end neatly with a sharp knife. An employee will almost always leave the cut end ragged but if you do it yourself and have smooth ends and cover them with paraffin you can graft right squarely on that end. Turn down your bark for a slot and stick in the scion at any time. If the cut end was made by someone who was not careful make a cut down through any living bark with a chisel or a knife until you get down to the wood, then make parallel lines from that point and turn down the tongue of bark. I have put in scions where I had to use a heavy chisel and mallet to turn down the tongue. It was not necessary to put on any binding there where the tongue of bark was so thick.
Prof. Close: I understand you to say that if the end has become dried you go down below the dried part?
Dr. Morris: When I find the end of the stub dry I go below that point to get live bark for grafting purposes. After my scion is well under way a year or so then I saw off any projecting stub beyond the graft and put paraffin over the cut end. That form of graft works very well except that it makes more work.
Mr. Littlepage: I have been very much interested in what Dr. Morris said. I found it no trouble whatever to get a hickory from four to six or eight inches to grow a great big graft, but I have never seen one live three years. I have my woods full of dead ones. I have one in front of my house now which I slip-bark grafted about the diameter of two inches and it is still growing but I expect an invitation to its funeral next spring. I have never seen a hickory tree successfully grafted over five inches in diameter. I found in my woods that the trees would sometimes die down to the ground. If they lived they would drag along for two or three years. If those of you who were out there yesterday had had a little more time I could have shown you those dead hickories. I would like to know what your experience is in grafting hickories over an inch in diameter.