been in general use sufficiently long to
allow us to draw any seemingly reliable conclusion as to its real
merits.

For the personal use of the average orchardist, Portland cement is one
of the last in the list mentioned above that I would recommend.
According to a few reports that have reached me, wooden blocks and tar
proved to be fairly satisfactory half a century ago, and strips of wood
embedded in some flexible and antiseptic material, are proving very
satisfactory today. An excellent preparation to use between the strips
of wood, containing asphalt and asbestos, can be readily bought on the
market, and it has the advantage of being mixed ready for use. For
cavities with horizontal openings that will hold semi-fluid substances,
clear asphalt or gas-house (coal) tar may answer all purposes. For
cavities with oblique or vertical openings, or for those on the
underside of a limb, probably some of the magnesian cements, which
readily adhere to wood, will be found more satisfactory when properly
mixed and applied.

Although I have said more about filling cavities than of other phases of
the work, I do not wish the impression to go forth that I recommend such
work except as a last resort, so to speak. The one thing that I do most
emphatically recommend above all others is the prevention of decay so
far as possible by practices that are less likely to allow
decay-producing organisms to gain entrance in the first place, or at any
other time.

THE PRESIDENT: Does anyone care to discuss this paper?

MR. KAINS: Mr. President: During the last five years, I have planted
several hundred nut trees, including the English walnut, black walnut,
the heartnut, pecan (northern ones) and some hybrid hickories. I have
noticed that in this nursery stock there has been a good deal of
dying-out of the original stock where the trees had been grafted, and
where the scion had not covered over. In some of those cases decay has
set in, and the trees have died before they could be attended to or have
been broken down by the wind. The point is, I think it a mistake for
nurserymen to use as large stocks as they have been using in many of
these cases, because the stump of the stock is too large for the slowly
growing scions to cover over quickly enough. My experience in the
planting of fruit trees has been uniformly successful with smaller
stocks (that is, trees smaller than I have been able to buy for nut
trees) with peaches one year from the