VOICE: Do you use anything besides the hickory as stock for grafting on?
DR. MORRIS: Yes, we have some experimenting to do in order to learn which stock will best serve for a certain variety. We find that one species or variety of hickory will accept other varieties of that species well, but perhaps it will not accept another species. We do know that certain kinds do remarkably well on certain stocks; but the entire range of that subject has not as yet been worked out.
QUESTION: Does the stock you graft on have any effect on the quality of the fruit?
DR. MORRIS: The stock on which you graft is supposed to have no effect at all on the quality of the fruit. But there are some exceptions. We learned that in orange grafting. A naval orange grafted on the wild orange stock might be raggy, not full of juice; while when grafted on the trifoliate orange stock might be heavy and full of juice. So in that case the stock did have some influence upon the graft; and there are other instances. But as a rule we assume that the stock has no influence upon the graft in regard to the validity of character.
QUESTION: Are pecans a variety of hickory?
DR. MORRIS: Yes, pecans are hickories. The Indians gave it the name of pekan. The French spelled it pecanne, so that has been spelled as the pecan, without the necessary other part of its name, hickory. We should always say pecan hickory--always.
DR. KELLOGG: Dr. Morris, how old hickories may be used for grafting?
DR. MORRIS: I have experimented with trees up to fifty years of age; but the most satisfactory work, perhaps, is done with trees that are not more than fifteen or twenty years of age and three or four or five inches in diameter. Those are the best trees to work with. If we cut off the limbs of a very old tree and try to top work it, it means an enormous amount of work on the part of the orchardist, more work than my employees like to give it. But one may topwork a tree of almost any age, preferably a tree less than twenty-five years of age; and by choice I should say trees not more than ten years of age. We have experts in the audience better qualified to speak on that subject than I am.
QUESTION: Do you prefer the melted paraffin to the old-fashioned way of using bees wax?