he season and it would appear that these
conditions could easily be duplicated, at least in average seasons.
Young stocks of either the pecan or pignut hickory hold their sap much
later than does the shagbark and are in good condition for budding after
the shagbark is dormant. We have practiced this method on the chestnut
for several years with very satisfactory results. The chestnut may be
budded almost as easily as the apple or pear, and with nearly as good
results, by ordinary shield budding, by taking scions for budding from
an old bearing tree which has matured and ripened its growth up early
and setting the buds on young, sappy seedling stocks growing under
cultivation in the nursery. The paragon chestnut, especially, ripens its
growth up very early when the tree is carrying a good crop of chestnuts,
and there is a month, in average seasons, when buds may be taken from it
and set on young stocks in the nursery. This condition might be brought
about on younger trees from which buds are to be taken by withholding
nitrogenous fertilizers and cultivation, or, if necessary, by root
pruning. Root pruning should not be too severe as a sudden check on the
growth in the growing season might interfere more or less with the
storing up of "starch" or "dormant plant food" in the scion. Any
condition or conditions that will serve to induce early maturing and
ripening of the wood growth on trees from which buds are to be taken
will be satisfactory, and by using nitrogenous fertilizers and liberal
cultivation on the stocks to be budded, they may be kept in good
condition of sap well into September in average seasons. Grafted at the
proper time we were able to get good results without any manipulation of
the seedling stocks. All that we ever did there was to remove the new
growth occasionally to hold the stocks in good condition for grafting
and prolong the grafting season, and it was always questionable whether
this was a necessary precaution. My idea in keeping the new growth off
the stocks till the grafts were set was not to control the sap flow, but
to prevent, if it were possible by this means, the exhaustion of the
stored up "starch" in the stock, by the new growth. In the northern
states, the sap in the walnut stocks, and perhaps to some extent in
other nut tree stocks, is inclined to come up in the spring with a rush.
Some seasons at least, even before the buds push into growth, when the
stocks are cut off for grafting a lar