1880. New Grafting Wax

1880.     New Grafting Wax. Melt 1 pound resin over a slow fire, add 1 ounce beef tallow, and stir with a perfectly dry stick or piece of wire. When somewhat cooled, add 1 table-spoonful spirits of turpentine, and lastly 5 ounces of 95 per cent, alcohol in small quantities, stirring the mass constantly. Should the alcohol cause it to lump, warm again until it melts. Keep in a bottle. Lay it on in a very thin coat with a brush. In a room of moderate temperature, the wax should be of the consistence of molasses. Should it prove thicker, thin it down with alcohol. It is always ready for use, is never affected by heat or cold, and heals up wounds hermetically.

1881. Grafting Wax

1881.    Grafting Wax. Take 4 ounces pitch, 4 ounces resin, 2 ounces hogs' lard, and 1 ounces bees' wax; put them all together into a pipkin, and dissolve them over a slow fire, and it will form an excellent grafting wax. By spreading some of this mixture on paper it makes the grafting paper. The French make very good grafting wax by mixing together equal quantities of bees' wax and resin, and adding as much tallow as will cause it to dissolve at a low temperature. For an application where limbs have been removed in pruning, nothing is better than coal tar.

1882. Grafting Clay

1882.    Grafting Clay. Take strong adhesive loam or clay, and knead it till of the consistency of soft soap. Take also some horse droppings, and rub through a riddle of half-inch mesh. Mix the two ingredients with fresh cow-dung, all in equal parts, to a uniform consistency. "When grafting, the operator should have at hand some finely-riddled ashes, into which the hands should be dipped to prevent the clay from adhering, and enable him to give the whole a neat finish.

1883. To Propagate Marsh

1883.    To Propagate Marsh. Plants. The best plan is by means of a stone trough 6 inches to a foot deep, and of any convenient length and breadth, with a hole for a tap at one corner. This is to be treated as a flowerpot; the bottom being covered with small stones, and the trough filled up with a compost of peat and light loam. The surface is then covered with any description of light moss that can be got, and watered till the whole is saturated to the brim.

1884. To Prepare Seeds for Exportation

1884.    To Prepare Seeds for Exportation. Seeds intended for exportation should not be gathered until they have become perfectly ripe; they should then be laid in a stove, or exposed in the sun to dry, as getting them perfectly dry is the principal point. They may be packed in bags, papers, or boxes. If they are kept dry, they will bear a voyage of many months, without injury to their vegetating properties.

1885. To Prepare Nails for Wall-Trees

1885.    To Prepare Nails for Wall-Trees. These should be of cast iron if they can be obtained. Before using, they should be heated red-hot, and then thrown into cold linseed oil. This gives them a varnish which preserves them from rusting, and prevents the mortar of the wall from sticking to them when they are drawn.