I'd like
Mr. Bernath to tell us briefly just why he likes to bench graft hickory.

MR. BERNATH: I like it because I do my work in the wintertime under
glass. I have no time in the spring to fuss with outside grafting. So if
you gentlemen would like to hear it, I will tell you all about it.

Many years ago when I learned my profession, we had difficulty in
finding a method to graft oaks. We finally did find a method that would
take and which I have found successful with hickories.

The stocks are dug in the fall and stored heeled in earth. When I am
ready to graft I put them on a table, along with the scion wood and
start grafting. I use the side graft at the crown leaving a short spur
above the graft. Leave them unwaxed and layer them in moss peat in a
glass covered frame in the greenhouse with some ventilation. In three or
four weeks' time, when the union has formed and just before the leaves
come out, take them out and plant them in a cold frame outside. Of
course you have to put glass on it to protect them from frost, as well
as intense sun. Here you can use part peat and part soil. Leave them
there for one year in those frames, with partial shade, until they get
fairly high so they shade each other. They can then be set in the
nursery row.

MR. O'ROURKE: Mr. Bernath, I know there are some folks here who are
nurserymen and who are interested in the cost of production of a
finished tree. Do you feel that you can produce a tree to transplant any
height you want to select, five, six feet, so on, as cheaply according
to this method of bench grafting in the greenhouse as if you bud it or
graft it in a nursery row?

MR. BERNATH: That's a question. I have never kept a record of that. It
is all right for a young man who is able to get down on his hands and
knees and graft, but for me that wouldn't do.

MR. FERGUSON: What temperature do you use in the frames?

MR. BERNATH: About 65. Sun heat naturally will raise it. Care must be
used to ventilate the frames in the greenhouse to prevent condensation
soaking the grafts.

MR. FERGUSON: Do you carry higher temperatures for walnuts?

MR. BERNATH: All of them about the same. You follow the method just the
same as nature. If you follow nature, you will never go wrong. But you
have to watch out for fungus in the case, because if you have excessive
temperature, the fungus disease will get in your case and ruin the whole
thing.

MR. WARD: I presume, Mr. Bernath, when you s