the British farmers to raise the
wheat crop from six bushels to thirty bushels per acre. Things move
faster nowadays. It will not require so long a time to carry tree crops
from the seedling phase to the phase of grafted kinds with greater
productivity and quality. In the past the successful tree grafter was a
specially skilled man. Now almost anybody may graft almost any sort of
tree at almost any time of the year.

Aside from grafting, the hybridizing of nut trees, like that of cereal
grain plants, has become a scientific sport appealing to the play
instinct of man. When work becomes play in any field of human activity
progress goes by leaps and bounds. The recent advance in tree grafting
has amounted almost to a revolution rather than an evolution process.
Application of a few new grafting principles of great consequence is now
the order of the day. Old established grafting methods frequently ran
into failures when dealing with all but a few trees like the common
fruit bearing kinds.

The two chief obstacles to successful grafting were desiccation of the
graft and fungous or bacterial parasites which entered the land of milk
and honey where sap collected in graft wounds. Both of these dangers
have now been practically eliminated and it remains for us to extend the
season of grafting, carrying it away from a hurried procedure in busy
spring weeks.

The chief obstacle to this extension of the grafting season has been the
difficulty in finding the right sort of grafting wax or protective
material for covering the graft, buds and all, as well as the wound of
the stock. For covering the entire graft in order to avoid desiccation
grafting waxes had to be applied in melted form with a brush. They had
to be applied in melted form for filling interstices of wounds in which
sap might collect and ferment. These waxes had the effect of not
retaining their quality under greatly varying conditions of heat, cold
and moisture. The paraffin waxes which the author has preferred were
inclined to crack and to become separated from the graft and stock in
cold weather. Furthermore they would remelt and become useless in the
very hot sun of southern latitudes.

Experimentation for several seasons has resulted in the finding that raw
pine gum is miscible with the paraffins in almost all proportions
because of physical or chemical affinity. This gives to the wax an
elasticity and adhesiveness of such degree that we may now graft trees
i