Prof. Smith: Have you had any experience in fixing up a bed of scions like that and putting it in cold storage?
The Chairman: Yes, but you must tell the cold storage people not to let them get too dry. Tell them you want them in moist cold storage, and to keep the temperature about 40.
A Member: We have found with walnuts that if you have the scions too damp they won't keep very long. If you have them just moist enough to hold them you can keep them all winter, maybe indefinitely.
The Chairman: If your cell is full of water the scion will work as hard as an Irishman.
A Member: I find that we have to graft them above ground, in the North, and if they are too moist when grafted they will dry up, but if kept dry they will grow, because they will remain in good condition until the sap comes up in the stock.
The Chairman: Yes, you must choose a position midway between too dry and too moist.
Mr. Littlepage: That is very important; they won't stand dampness.
Mr. Pomeroy: Wouldn't it be well to dip the cut end of the walnut scion in wax to hold the sap?
The Chairman: I am afraid that would stop its breathing. You are dealing with a red squirrel all the while, remember that.
Col. Sober: My method is this: I have a little room about six feet wide with ice packs on both sides and double doors. In that I pack my scions in this way: I take carbide cans made of iron and put damp sawdust, about an inch or so, on the bottom and then I pack my scions in the cans, cut end down, then I put the top on loosely. I have carried them over the second year in that way.
The Chairman: But you let them breathe all the while?
Col. Sober: Certainly, and they have but very little moisture. They are kept in a temperature of about 40 degrees.
Prof. Smith: How often do you wet that sawdust?
The Chairman: Well, that's in keeping with our theoretical basis.
Col. Sober: I cut scions any time between now and March. I don't take them out of storage until we use them. We graft up to the middle of June.
The Chairman: I found some hickory scions that had been accidentally overlooked, kept under leaves, and the buds in the cambium were perfectly good after two years. In regard to winter injury--in the vicinity of Stamford, Conn., the nurserymen reported greater losses of all kinds in nursery stock than they had had before in their experience. I noticed that some small branches of the Persian walnuts had been injured, and particularly where grafts had started a little late and had not lignified quite thoroughly I lost whatever grafts had not had time to lignify. Last winter the injuries in our vicinity consisted chiefly of two kinds; occasional killing of the small branches--this does little harm because, where the branch is killed and dies back for a certain distance, we have three or four more branches starting up, so that perhaps it is not sophistical to say that it does the tree good. We get a larger bearing area than if it were not for this occasional freezing of small branches. Another form of injury occurs in the spring. The sap will start to ascend when we have warm days in February and March; then a few cold days come and, if we have absolutely freezing temperature at night, this sap freezes and when it freezes it expands, as water does everywhere, and the result is a bursting of the bark. That is an occasional happening with all trees but particularly with exotics. One kind of winter injury has been overlooked in connection with the walnut. The very last thing which the tree does in the autumn is to complete its buds for female flowers. That is the very last job the tree has on hand and if the tree cannot complete the buds for female flowers perfectly, then a very little wood killing will make that a barren tree, although it appears to be a good strong tree. That covers the kinds of winter injury I have seen in the vicinity of Stamford, Conn.