PFU Warns About State
Farm Labor Proposals
HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.)
The Pennsylvania Farmers
Union has been attending recent
meetings on "the hill” concerning
the effect of upcoming legislation
on the family farming community.
House Bills 1050, 1051 and
1052 were designed to address the
needs of the migrant and seasonal
workers in agriculture, but the cur*
rent wording of these bills encom
passes all temporary and full-time
help employed on the farm.
PFU President Robert C. Junk
Jr. has been providing input as to
the way this legislation will
adversely affect the small family
farmer.
The legislation as it is now writ*
ten, will provide for better wages,
better housing in work camps
where seasonal help is employed,
availability of emergency medical
treatment in the seasonal labor
camps, overtime if the work week
exceeds 40 hours, transportation
to and from the job sites and an
accurate disclosure of how long
the work will last when recruiting
for temporary help.
Let’s say a farmer needs to hire
some temporary labor to help him
get his hay in.
As the bills are now worded, he
can only hire local high school
kids or his immediate family or
three local people whose primary
source of income is not from agri
culture and the work must be anti
cipated to be for less than fifteen
days.
Anything over or above these
criteria would have the farmer
subject to this legislation.
PFU would like to see the word
ing of these bills changed to
exempt the small family farming
operation from this legislation and
will continue to work toward
obtaining this goal in any future
negotiations.
N.Y., N.J. Area
Milk Marketing
Meeting Set
ALBANY,
N.Y. Informational meetings
on upcoming changes to the feder
al New York-New Jersey milk
marketing order are to be held at
Grafting Ensures Nuts From Trees
(Continued from Pago A 1)
visited Book’s Nursery, on old
Hershey Road near Elizabethtown,
to observe how a nut tree is grafted.
In this case, A Hickory shag
bark, with five leaves per stem and
a rough, “shaggy” appearance to
the tree’s bark, was grafted with
the hickory nut called Grainger.
two locations this month.
On Thursday, June 17, at 10
ajn., an informational meeting is
scheduled to be held at the Marriott
at Glenpoint, in Teaneck, N.J.,
located at the intersection of I9S
and Fort Lee Road.
Another informational meeting
is scheduled to be held Tuesday,
June 22, starting at 10 a.m., at the
Albany Polish Community Center,
in Albany. It is located at 225
Washington Avenue Extension.
Also on June 22, a public meet
ing has been announced concern
ing the proposed amendment to the
Classification and Accounting
Rules and Regulations for the
order. The meeting is also to be
held at the Polish Community Cen
ter and is set to start at 1:30 p.m.
For more information, call (SIS)
452-4410.
Lancaster Farming. Saturday. June 12. 1993-A29
The hickory nut is a favorite of
Book’s, especially the variety
called Fayette (a shellbarb), which
has a dark brown, thick shell, and a
distinctive hickory taste.
Book maintains about 100
grafted hickory and black walnut
trees on his 120-acre farm and
nursery, in addition to 3,000
Christmas trees on about three
acres.
He said that for years, the hick
ory nut had a bad name, because
people associate the nut to trees
that grow wild and bear a small
shell that is hard to break and near
ly impossible kernel to remove.
Many of the ones growing wild
were planted by squirrels, who put
them nearly anywhere. But with
special care and precise grafting, a
wild hickory tree can be trans
formed into one that bears a deli
cious kernel.
No industry
“There’s no industry for the
hickory nut,” said Book. “If I
were a young guy just getting
started in life, I would consider
planting acreage of hickory nuts,
because they are a quality nut, in
terms of flavor, in terms of easier
to crack, if you have the right
kind.”
Book said the Association is
“looking for nuts that have fairly
easy cracking quality ... when
they break open, you get kernels or
halves. On the hickory nut, you
look fora half. You try to get them
so that they’re a lighter color—the
darker colored nuts are supposedly
not as good and often have a diffe
rent and distinct flavor.”
Book said some nut trees have a
genetic tendency to produce “not
true” to their parent tree.
Necessary equipment
Growers who want to graft can
pick up the necessary equipment
from any hardware store or nursery
supplier, which includes plastic
bags, masking tape, scissors, ham
mer, small nails, clipper, sharp
knife, hand saw, and rubber bands.
Following are the six “Grafting
Rules and Procedures” compiled
by Book:
1. Collect healthy last year's scion wood
after 72 hours of nonfreezing temperatures
and before the sap begins to flow. Scion wood
is the wood produced at the end of a limb, the
new growth from the past year, which appears
green in the spring and summer. The scion
wood should be collected in late February or
early March. On the day of the demonstration
at the nursery. Book used Grainger scion
wood kept at 38 degrees Fahrenheit in a
refrigerator.
2. Store scion wood in a paper towel, and
add 3 or 4 drops of water to the towel. Wrap
towel and wood in a sheet of newspaper, then
put in a plastic bag. Store at temperatures
between 36-38 degrees Fahrenheit and not
with apples or cabbage. The reason not to
store with apples or cabbage is because of cer
tain toxicity produced by the particular fruit
and other vegetables.
3. Start grafting when the weather report
calls for temperatures in the 80s four days or
more in a row. The best time to graft would be
June into July. Graft black walnuts only after
the stock has been cut off and allowed to bleed
out. A bleeding stock will not allow the scion
to grow.
4. Cover scion after it is placed on the
stock. To place it on the stock, first choose a
tree that is 2-3 years old. Cut the trunk of the
tree at chest height, at a slight angle. Remove
all other limbs and branches and new growth,
leaving only the trunk. Take the scion wood,
and choose one really health bud for top
growth. Using a sharp knife, slice the scion
wood to expose a “wedge” of only the cam
bium layer, which will produce growth of the
scion. Next, to make a baric graft, cut the out
side edge of the bark of the trunk away, leav
ing a site to insert the scion wood wedge. Both
cambria layers of the trunk and the scion
wood should meet. “The key to the success
on this is making sure that you get those cam
bium layers contacting,” said Book. “The
cambium layer and the toot stock has to con
tact on the side. If they make proper contact,
then the food-sap flows in there.” Usea small
nail and hammer the two together. Use a rub
ber band for additional support Then take the
plastic bag and cover the scion and part of the
trunk to retain moisture.
5. Attach a side stick for birds to sit on.
This will protect the new growth from bird
perching and wind damage.
6. Tend grafts every third day to remove
growth on the stock. Once the scion begins to
grow and is 3 or 4 inches long, stop tending.
Remove the plastic bag when necessary to
continue the top growth. Also, trim the new
growth along the trunk as a result of the prun
ing for four weeks, then let grow (otherwise
the graft can become top-heavy).
By attaching a new scion bearing the better
nut to an existing tree what grafting is all
about —and by correct fertilization and care,
a nut tree will bear a delicious kernel.
“Grafting in the nursery business is very
easy to do.” he said. “You get a preimium
price for trees that are grafted.”