ink, until, finally, new roots
pushed through and appeared on the outside of this ball of sphagnum.

President Morris: I read of that. It was published in a government
report.

Professor Collins: It was on the rubber plant.

President Morris: I tried it at that time on the hickory. The difficulty
was in getting my men sufficiently interested to keep the sphagnum wet
all the time. It promised something. The rubber plants, perhaps, would
lend themselves more readily to such a procedure than the hickories,
because most of the rubber plants are air plants, anyway. All of the
_Ficus_ family depend so little upon the ground for their nourishment.

Professor Collins: I have seen that worked very successfully.

Professor Lake: You don't know how successful the callousing has been?

President Morris: They calloused all right.

Professor Lake: How long did it require?

President Morris: I don't remember. It was a good while, longer than I
anticipated. I don't think there was a callus on the hickory in less
than thirty days. The butternut and black walnut hardly showed any
callus at all after keeping the sphagnum wet as long as my men would do
it.

Professor Lake: At what time was the ringing done?

President Morris: The leaves had fallen this year. Professor Coville
suggested that it be done before the leaves had fallen. But the hickory
will callous after the leaves have fallen. It seems to me hickories are
at work all winter long. They have a free flow of sap in January, and
any warm day in January they will be like a maple tree, almost, if they
are cut. I have grafted them at that time.

Mr. Brown: Can anyone give me any information on grafting chestnuts?

Mr. Rush: I have been very successful with the grafting of the chestnut.
It is just as simple as grafting other fruit, except the Persian walnut.
Tongue grafting and cleft grafting is very successful. There is no
particular secret in connection with grafting chestnuts.

President Morris: Personally, I found it difficult for two or three
years, but now I can graft the chestnut about as readily as I can graft
the apple. There is no difference in methods. It seems to me from my
present experience that one may graft or bud chestnut by almost any of
the accepted methods pretty freely. What has been your experience, Mr.
Littlepage?

Mr. Littlepage: I haven't been experimenting with the propagation of the
chestnut yet. I am getting ready. I have three or four thousan