The Nut Culturist: A Treatise on Propogation, Planting, and Cultivation of Nut Bearing Trees and Shrubs Adapted to the Climate of the United StatesFuller, Andrew S. (Andrew Samuel)
Science
The Nut Culturist: A Treatise on Propogation, Planting, and Cultivation of Nut Bearing Trees and Shrubs Adapted to the Climate of the United States
Fuller, Andrew S. (Andrew Samuel)
Nuts
=Grafting Materials.=--The really essential materials and implements
required in grafting nut trees are few in number. Grafting wax must
be provided, and while there are many different compositions used
for this purpose, I much prefer, for ordinary work in the open air,
a wax made after the old formula, and as follows: Take one pound of
common rosin, one-half pound of beeswax, and one-quarter of a pound
of beef tallow; melt together and stir enough to insure the thorough
intermingling of the ingredients, and then set away to cool, or pour
into cold water and work up into cakes or rolls and wrap in paper
until wanted for use. Larger quantities may be made if required,
preserving the same proportions of the materials used. If to be used
immediately in grafting chestnuts and similar trees, then procure
some sheets of tough Manilla paper of only moderate thickness, and
cut this up into sheets about six inches wide and a foot long. While
the fresh-made wax is melted, take an old and rather stiff paint
brush, dip it into the hot wax and coat the papers thinly with it,
and then spread them out on shelves or elsewhere to cool, and let
them remain undisturbed until wanted for use. Any thin kind of cloth
may be used instead of paper, but I prefer the latter because it
will yield to the pressure of the enlarging stock and cion when
growth begins, and it will not be necessary to examine the grafted
stock so frequently during the summer to prevent girdling, as is
usually the case when a tougher material is employed for wrappers.
Before these waxed sheets are taken into the field for use, lay each
one separately on a piece of board with the waxed side up, and with
the point of a sharp knife cut them crossways into narrow strips of
from one-half to three-fourths of an inch wide. But for convenience
in handling, insert the point of the knife a half-inch from one
edge, but cut the other clean through, so that the whole sheet of
strips can be lifted together.
In early spring there is usually more or less windy weather, and if
waxed sheets of paper are taken out into the field unprotected they
are very likely to become tangled up and useless. To prevent this,
procure a number of large but very shallow paper boxes, such as can
usually be had at the stores and groceries of almost any village,
and in these place a single layer of the cut waxed sheets, where
they will be protected from wind and dust until removed for
immediate use.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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