The President: Yes, Mr. Gellatly of West Bank, British Columbia, has a variety that blooms rather late. J. U. Gellatly and his brother David have the best collection of Japanese walnuts in Canada, of heartnuts especially.
Professor Reed was to give us a paper on harvesting and marketing. We have just heard that his paper will be here tomorrow. The next paper is by Mr. F. O. Harrington.
THIRTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE IN THE CARE OF SCIONWOOD
F. O. Harrington, Williamsburg, Iowa
Prof. Colby wrote me some months ago asking if I would not write a paper for this meeting on "Fifty Years' Experience in Nut Growing." I answered that I had not been particularly interested in nut culture until within a few years, and that I believed I could be of more use to our members by telling them something of the care of scionwood.
I am going to tell you of my method used for thirty years constantly with only slight changes from the beginning. Any man who has had any experience knows that it is important that scionwood should be carefully kept, that it should not be kept in air so dry that the bark would shrivel to any appreciable extent, or, on the other hand, a still worse condition, where it is so damp that the bark will loosen and the buds start.
It is difficult enough in nut tree grafting to obtain reasonably fair success with the scions in perfect condition, where used in late spring, and it is something of a heart breaking proposition to try it with poor scionwood. To the nurseryman, with his winter grafting of fruit trees, the keeping of the scionwood long enough for his purpose in the cold of the winter season is no problem at all. It can be stacked in a pile in any cool cellar (not too wet) and covered over with leaves and blankets, or what not, and it is all O. K. for that period. It is a far different matter to hold small amounts of wood absolutely dormant through the changing conditions from winter to summer, and perhaps as greatly changed conditions of moisture through several months. And how shall this best be accomplished?
Ice house conditions are not, I think, generally very satisfactory. The right cold storage facilities might be satisfactory, but not readily accessible to most of us. I used to use boxes in the cellar, with careful packing with forest leaves and somewhat careful attention to moisture conditions, with penalties for lax attention always enforced.
I know one nurseryman who, beside the regular nursery fruit tree grafting scion wood, kept many scions of nut trees. He had a deep outdoor cellar, or cave, which was always cool and not too dry. In this, in large boxes of sawdust, he kept his scions for spring use. Just how much attention as regards moisture conditions he had to give this I do not know, but through his knowledge and experience with it I think his scions were usually in good condition.