The Secretary: You have spoken about soaking the scions in cold water; does not that injure the buds? We have been told heretofore that keeping the scions in water started the cells into activity and rendered them less likely to grow; but perhaps that referred particularly to scions for grafting rather than budding.
The Chairman: I would like to ask Mr. Wiggins that question, he is a specialist.
Mr. Wiggins: One of the dangers in keeping bud wood is that of keeping it in too much moisture. It does not require much to keep the bud plump.
The Secretary: I understand the reason for soaking is simply to allow the bud to be taken off.
The Chairman: Yes.
Mr. Jones: In our experience the soaking of wood does not injure it for budding, but it does for grafting. You can soak the wood for budding all you want to, we have soaked it until the top bud came out.
The Secretary: I am interested in knowing about this special wax cloth. Can it be used also in grafting?
The Chairman: The other is much cheaper for that purpose. To just cover the thing up and exclude the air is all that is necessary in grafting. Liquid wax—four of rosin, four of tallow and two of beeswax—gives excellent results, but for budding purposes it is absolutely essential to have good clean wax, and for our purposes we have never found anything but pure beeswax would answer.
The Secretary: There is a substance called "white wax" which pharmacists use in making toilet preparations—purified beeswax. It is pure white. Is that any advantage?
The Chairman: I would not use it. It contains some paraffine.