Now I will quote to you on the care of scions from J. F. Jones' paper on "The Propagation of Nut Trees" in the 1927 Report of the Annual Meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association, page 104:
"It is not in the selection of scions that the beginner usually fails to make his grafting a success, but in handling the scions. Scions for grafting need not to be put in cold storage. In fact cold storage at the usual temperatures seems to be injurious to scions. Cool storage, that is temperature maintained below the freezing point, is O. K., but in my experience this is not necessary. We store them in a cellar with a ground floor. This is damp and cool and the cases the scions are stored in are without bottoms and set on the damp cellar floor. The cases are lined with tar paper or light roofing, both the sides and the lid. The latter is hinged for ease of getting out scions as needed. No packing is used around the scions and they draw enough moisture from the damp ground below to hold them plump and in good condition. Good scions stored in this way can be kept for weeks, or even months if need be, in excellent condition. Nut scions for grafting are soon spoiled if packed too damp, even if kept at temperatures considerably below that required to cause the sap to flow in trees outside."
Again I quote from Dr. W. C. Deming (1925 Report, page 48), "Top Working Hickory Trees for the Beginner":
"Scions packed away for any length of time are apt to go wrong, either by drying too much, by being too moist and starting to grow, or by heating, molding or rotting. A simple way to keep them is to dig a hole about three feet deep in the ground outdoors in a dry and sheltered place where water can never reach them, as under the back porch. Have the scions in convenient lengths of one to two feet. Wrap them in a bundle, or bundles, in a light tar paper, which helps to prevent mold. Leave the ends open for ventilation. Lay the bundles in the bottom of the hole and cover the top of the hole with an old carpet, or several newspapers. This description gives a general idea of the conditions under which scions should be kept. A man may vary it according to his own conditions, bearing in mind the principles. It is of vital importance to the success of grafting that the scions should be in good condition. The usual mistakes are in keeping them too wet and too much wrapped up. They should be examined frequently to see that they are keeping well."
I have brought to your attention what have been considered the very best methods of keeping scionwood dormant and in best possible condition, and all agree that this is of vital importance for successful grafting. I will now call your attention to a better method than any of these, equally simple and inexpensive, and so much better in its action that scions may be kept by it two and three years in about the same condition as when severed from the parent tree; and to prove this statement I have here with me for your examination scionwood of several kinds of nut and fruit trees that have been kept in the Harrington graft box one year and two years. At the present time I have no older wood in my graft box, for the simple reason that in the summer of 1928 the cover of the box, which had been in several years, rotted so that the top caved in, leaving it open to too much air, thus in time spoiling what wood was in it; and before putting in new wood in November I had to dig out the old box and replace with a new one. For wood will rot in time in the ground. I have had, at different times in the past, scionwood in my box three years old, much of it seemingly still good. I have not used any of it for grafting at three years, but I have with good success the second year old from cutting. I started experimentally with this method and box thirty years ago and there has not been a year since in which I have not used it, so you may readily understand that it is not an untried theory I am giving you. A much valued member of our society, J. F. Jones of Lancaster, Pa., now deceased, wrote me at one time, "You undoubtedly have the best method of keeping scionwood known at the present day," and Prof. Close, head of the Pomology Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., made the same statement to me.
My own box is located in an evergreen grove on dry land, but a shady position to the north of a building might answer fairly well. Until the last eight years my box was for a long period, under and between two large butternut trees growing out in the open, except at the northward. In my opinion it is highly desirable to cut and store all scionwood before severe temperatures of the winter occur, preferably between Thanksgiving and Christmas because very severe freezing is liable to produce some little injury to the cambium layer, at least in some years, and if that injury be even very slight it will usually spell failure when used.
The graft box, as I am using it, is about thirty inches long by eighteen inches deep and fifteen inches wide. It has a solid cover but has a six inch square hand hole through on top in front, covered by a loose board lying flat and about ten inches square and butting back against a cross bar nailed across the box two inches back of the doorway opening. No bottom in the box but it has three cross bars nailed across inside to hold all scionwood up two inches from the earth floor. Any scion that touches the earth floor will either begin to grow or begin to rot. The box is entirely buried two to three inches under the ground except over the trap door. The spot must be perfectly drained. Over the box a space about six feet wide by seven feet long is insulated from temperature changes with straw packing to height, in center, of three feet and protected from rain by a wood roof of boards, shingles, or prepared roofing resembling, a little, the old wedge tent. To get into the box burrow in under by pulling out the straw in front, but not too large a tunnel, and far enough back to get at the trap door cover where it can be slipped off and scions put in, the door replaced and all the straw crowded back into place. Thereafter it is easy to slip the straw out and back to get at the box. In any case the packing is always carefully replaced, as the insulation of the earth near the box is of first importance.
Graft Box Air Conditions
The small amount of moisture coming into the box from sides and earth bottom, in ordinary conditions, seems to be very exactly balanced by the very small amount of dry air that finds ingress to the box from outside through the straw packing and the trap door, although after very long wet spells, at whatever season of the year, it has been my practice to bring all the scions out into the open air and allow both the scions and the interior of box to dry out for as long as seems needful. The reverse condition, that of too little moisture, I have never had to take notice of. Occasionally a little white mold in box and on scions may require a little open air treatment. No other condition seems to require any special care. I do not know how much larger a box than I have used would give equal satisfaction, for I have not demonstrated that feature, but obviously there must be at some point a limiting factor between the desired casualty of moisture and its opposite in the box. I am inclined to think that a box of double that capacity could safely be used, but advise that, where large amounts of scionwood are needed, more than one box be used until a test has been made with less valuable wood to find the size limit.