North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doc Lisenby" <longdistshtr@shtc.net>]

"Mark Lanmon here.  Whoever copied this ancient accout of grafting below is
being a help to me.  I am helping a remote people group near Tibet to
learn grafting.  They will not have grafting tape (or any tape) available
to them so this home made mixture and technique is more likely something
they can use.  If anyone else has some advise on non-store-bought
supplies, I would be very interested.  Thanks, Mark."



Mark,  having been in Tibet, I would be surprised if, using the recipe 
provided by Lon, you could not use Yak butter to replace tallow.  I know 
that they use it as a wax to impregnate wooden floors.  I have seen 
containers of it in Buddhist Temples where it is used as lighting fuel which 
appeared to contain hundreds of pounds.  You are probably reviving a 
practice (grafting) in Tibet which has been lost over the centuries.  I know 
that there is evidence that the Chinese practiced grafting previous to our 
recognized "civilization" having the capability of recording such things in 
books. Horticultural practices were recorded on slabs of bamboo by the 
ancient Chinese but it will probably be another generation before we will 
learn much about them. A small group of interested people are slowly 
translating them into modern Chinese but, as far as I know, there are no 
plans to publish their findings in any other language. There was a rumor 
going around that the Chinese Government was funding a move to re-discover 
the history of their people's past in many areas.
Doc Lisenby