y well adapted for use in top-working trees.

A good grafting wax may be made according to a number of different
formulas. Either of the following will be found satisfactory:

{Resin 6 pounds.
I. {Beeswax 2 pounds.
{Linseed Oil 1 pound.

{Resin 4 pounds.
II.{Beeswax 1 pound.
{Linseed Oil 1 pint.

Break the resin and cut the beeswax into small pieces. Place in an iron
vessel, pour the oil over them and melt over a slow fire. Stir slightly
to insure their being well mixed together, pour out into a bucket of
cold water, grease the hands, and as soon as the mass is cool enough to
handle, pull until it becomes light yellow in color. The wax may be made
up in quantity and stored in greased tin or wooden boxes for future use.

To prepare waxed cloth, cut the cotton cloth into pieces of convenient
size, say eighteen inches square, dip them down into the melted wax,
remove them with a couple of sticks and stretch them out until cooled.
For use, the cloth may be torn into strips of desired width and wound
about a stick eighteen inches or so in length. Use a little grease to
prevent the grafting wax and grafting cloth from sticking to the hands.

For waxed twine, procure No. 18 knitting cotton and drop the balls into
the melted wax for a minute or two or until the wax penetrates them.

SELECTION OF SCIONS.

Great care should be exercised in the selection of scions for use in
budding and grafting. Much of the immediate success of the work depends
upon the character of the scions, while the health and longevity of the
future tree may be materially influenced by the kind of wood used in
propagating work.

The practice of taking scions and buds from young trees which have never
borne, or from nursery stuck, must be strongly condemned. They should be
cut only from thrifty, vigorous, prolific trees. Even trees of the same
variety differ in these things, and a thorough knowledge of what a tree
will do and has done is the only true guide in the selection of scions.
It is a well-known fact that desirable qualities can be reproduced and
perpetuated by grafting.

[Illustration: _From Bul. 57, Florida Exp. Sta._

FIG. 19. Scions: 1-3, Curtis; 4-6, Van Deman; 7-8, Stuart. 1. Poor
Scions--long, slender, pithy. 2,4,5,7,8. Scions from one year's growth.
3. Scion, partly one, partly two years old. 6. Scion with cut, back of
tip. 8. Scion which bore frui