HICKORY NUTS.
Hicoria, _Rafinesque_. Name probably derived from the aboriginal or
Indian word hickery, or hickory, the common name for these nuts
among the tribes formerly inhabiting the Middle and Southern
Atlantic States.
=Order=, _Juglandaceae_ (Walnut family).--Native deciduous trees of
large size, with compound serrate leaves with an odd number of
leaflets, varying from five to fifteen in the different species, the
three terminal ones usually much the largest, the lower ones on
opposite sides of the rather stout leafstalk. Male catkins slender,
cylindrical, pendulous, two to six inches long, three in a cluster,
on a naked peduncle or stalk (Fig. 46) springing from the base of
the terminal buds of the previous season's twigs, and just below the
first set of new leaves in spring; calyx unequally three-parted;
stamens three to eight. Female flowers two or more in a cluster,
from the end of the new growth of the season, which becomes the
common peduncle or fruit-stalk of a single nut or cluster of nuts.
The flowers are destitute of petals; stigma short, broad, and
four-lobed; husk fleshy or leathery, smooth, very thick in some
species and thin in others, partly or wholly four-lobed, opening in
some, allowing the nut to drop out at maturity, in others adhering,
falling off entire when ripe. Nuts with hard, bone-like shell, round
or oblong, smooth or deeply four to six angled, somewhat flattened
or compressed in most of the species; kernel two-lobed, oily, sweet
and delicious, as in the common shellbark hickory, or extremely
bitter, as in the bitter nut.
=History.=--The early white settlers of the Atlantic States found
the hickory nut in common use among the Indians, who gathered and
stored them in large quantities in the fall, for food during the
winter months, and while our ancestors who sought to make homes in
the western wilderness may have appreciated these luxuries, they
needed land for cultivation, and to secure it the forests were
destroyed, with no thought of preserving trees that would yield food
for themselves or succeeding generations. Not only were the forests
cleared away, as things to be banished from sight and mind, but as
the hickories yielded superior timber for various agricultural and
other implements, as well as for fuel, they were often sought for
and utilized in advance of the general clearing of wood lands, and
the first to feel the woodman's axe.
William Bartram, in the account of his travels through the Southern
Atlantic States, from 1773 to 1778, and published in Philadelphia in
1791, says, in referring to these nuts, that they are held "in great
estimation with the present generation of Indians, particularly
_Juglans exaltata_, commonly called shellbarked hickory; the Creeks
store up the latter in their towns. I have seen above an hundred
bushels of these nuts belonging to one family. They pound them to
pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing
through fine strainers, preserves the most oily part of the liquid;
this they call by a name which signifies 'hickory milk;' it is as
sweet and rich as fresh cream, and is an ingredient in most of their
cookery, especially in hominy and corn cakes."
We can readily imagine what a delicious liquid hickory milk must be
in which to cook hominy, rice, and similar kinds of grain; and there
would be no danger from tuberculosis in this natural product of the
vegetable kingdom. Perhaps at some future day, when milch cows are
as rare in this country as they have been for ages in China and
Japan, hickory milk will come into vogue again and be more highly
valued by our people than it ever was by the aborigines.
While we have no romantic tales to repeat in which either hickory
trees or the nuts have played an important part, yet we can well
imagine that such delicious food must, in ages past, as well as in
our own times, have been a coveted luxury, enjoyed at many a social
gathering of friends and neighbors. Many a country boy and girl has
welcomed the early autumn frosts, because they announced the opening
of the nutting season, reminding them of the long winter evenings
near at hand, and that the industrious and nimble squirrel was a
sharp competitor in the nutting field; consequently, no time could
be wasted if a store of such luxuries was to be gathered for home
use, or to be sent to city or village market for the benefit of less
fortunate consumers. It is to be hoped that this source of pleasure
and profit may continue long after the original forests of our
country have disappeared, and through the preservation and planting
of the noble food-bearing hickories by the roadsides, in orchards,
also for shelter, shade and ornament. Valuable as hickory timber and
hickory nuts have always been to the inhabitants of this country, we
might reasonably suppose that there would be many thousands of these
trees planted every year, in order to keep up a supply and make good
the annual loss sustained in the destruction constantly going on in
our forests. But no such plantings appear to have been undertaken in
our Northern States, and only quite recently in the Southern, where
the pecan nut is attracting considerable attention, on account of
the increase in demand, and the advance in price obtained for them
in the markets. Furthermore, with the many millions of dollars
expended by the general government to encourage the planting,
preservation and cultivation of forest trees, no special
encouragement has been extended to the nut-bearing kinds, and the
man who plants a cottonwood or worthless willow is given as much
credit as though he planted and reared a tree a thousand times more
valuable to himself and the country at large.
This may not be a very creditable phase of nut culture in the United
States, but it is history, nevertheless, and to attempt to suppress
it would merely be encouraging negligence, which has already become
so general that the inferior varieties of hickory nuts command a
much higher price in our markets than the very choicest did a few
years ago.
The nomenclature of the walnut family has been subjected to various
revisions by botanists, during the present century, and there are
probably others yet to follow in the near or distant future. In all
other standard botanical works published prior to 1817-1818, the
hickories were classed with the butternut, black walnut and Persian
walnut, and under the generic name of _Juglans_. But in the year
1818 Mr. Thomas Nuttall, an eminent English botanist, who had given
years to wandering through our forests and studying American plants,
separated the hickories from the older genus of _Juglans_, placing
them in a new one, to which he gave the name of _Carya_, from an
ancient Greek name of the walnut tree. This classification of
Nuttall's was immediately adopted by the botanists of his time, and
has been observed, scarcely without question, by the authors of all
the numerous botanical works published in America and Europe during
the past seventy-five years. But now we are informed by some of our
noted botanists that, in deference to the law of priority dominant
in matters scientific, Nuttall's name for this genus must be
abandoned, inasmuch as Mr. C. S. Rafinesque, an erratic Frenchman
possessing considerable ability for botanical research, and who came
to this country several years before Nuttall,--as some recent
investigations appear to prove,--defined the distinct
characteristics of the hickories, and not only proposed, but
published the name _Hicoria_ for this genus in 1817, while Nuttall's
_Carya_ did not appear until one year later, viz.: 1818. For these
dates I am mainly indebted to Dr. N. L. Britton, who appears to have
been delving among "first editions" of the works of the authors
named (Bulletin, Torrey Botanical Club, 1888).
It seems strange, however, at this late date, that such eminent
botanists as the late Dr. John Torrey and Dr. Asa Gray, who were
both intimately acquainted with, in fact associates of, Rafinesque,
should have ignored his rights in regard to the name of _Hicoria_,
if he was really entitled to the honor of founding this genus and
separating the hickories from the _Juglans_. But for some good
reason they left the matter in abeyance, for their successors to
settle. Dr. Torrey does, in a way, recognize Rafinesque, in his
"Catalogue of Plants Within Thirty Miles of the City of New York,"
published in 1819, but in a manner which shows that he had no
confidence in Rafinesque's claim, but did approve of Nuttall's
classifications and name of _Carya_, for on page 74 he refers to the
hickories as follows: "_Carya_, Nuttall; _Hickoria_, Rafinesque."
From this it appears that Dr. Torrey did not adopt _Hicoria_ as the
proper mode of spelling this word, but retained the letter k in
giving it a Latin form. This is not strange, inasmuch as Rafinesque
had no settled form of his own, and varied the spelling at different
times; as, for instance, _Scoria_, _Hicoria_, _Hickorius_ and
_Hicorius_. It is but reasonable to suppose that Dr. Torrey was
familiar with Rafinesque's earlier writings, and also whether his
proposed generic name of _Scoria_, in 1808, was legitimate, or a
misspelling of _Hicoria_, as suggested by Dr. Britton. But of one
thing we may rest assured, and that is, Dr. Torrey would not
knowingly detract from, nor fail to give every man full credit for
his labors in any branch of natural history or elsewhere, and he
certainly must have known Rafinesque in all his eccentricities and
moods, for when in New York city he was usually the guest of Dr.
Torrey, and these relations continued for many years.
A few of our leading botanists, having recently decided that
Rafinesque's name of _Hicoria_ must be restored, in deference to the
laws of priority, and Nuttall's _Carya_ be relegated to the position
of a synonym, I have concluded to adopt it in this work, although I
am well aware that a large majority of our botanists have protested
against this change, probably because of the confusion it is likely
to cause in the botanical literature of our times. My own reason for
adopting _Hicoria_ is not so much from any special reverence to the
laws of priority, but because it is derived from an old American
Indian name, and for all such I have a profound regard, and would
retain and adopt them whenever and wherever they are at all
appropriate to products indigenous to this country. The hickories
being purely American, and unknown to Greece or Greeks, a
semi-native name is all the more acceptable. It is not to be
expected that botanical quibbles are of any special interest to the
practical nut culturist, for a pecan or a shellbark hickory will
taste just as sweet and command as high a price in market under one
scientific name as another; but the cultivator may have occasion to
look up the botanical name of his trees in some school botany, or
other botanical work, and fail to find it, in the absence of some
guide to the various changes that have been made in the name of the
genus, as well as in the name of the synonyms of the different
species. Then, again, propagators and dealers in trees are prone to
employ unfamiliar names, whether they are old or new, this adding to
the confusion, without benefit to either purchaser or cultivator.
To assist those who may have occasion to consult these pages for
either the common or botanical names of the different species of the
hickory, I shall endeavor to give the greater part of those compiled
by Prof. C. S. Sargent (Tenth Census), Dr. Britton, and other
eminent authorities whose works I have had occasion to consult in
writing this treatise. It is not certain, however, that these
revisions and readjustments of the scientific names of this genus of
trees will remain undisturbed for any considerable number of years,
for we have "many men of many minds" at work in the line of
botanical research, and it can scarcely be expected that all will
reach the same conclusion, either in fact or fancy; besides, it is
often difficult, if not wholly impossible, to determine a species
from the description given by the earlier botanists, for they are
generally very brief and vague, and will often apply equally well to
two or more species of the same genus. In some instances not a word
is given in the way of description, merely a name, as in "Bartram's
Travels" (1791), where he speaks of _Juglans exaltata_, a
tall-growing hickory found in the region through which he was
traveling, and we now know that it may have been any one of two or
three species indigenous to the Southern States.
Under such confusing circumstances I shall make no claim of
infallibility in applying names to species, but attempt no more than
my predecessors have in the same direction, and my contemporaries
are now attempting, i. e., make as close a guess as possible as to
the species or variety of hickory which the earlier authors intended
to name and briefly describe. The date of publication of some of the
earlier works consulted are given, as an earnest of my desire to
assent to the law of priority in such matters.
[Illustration: FIG. 45. FOURTEEN YEARS OLD PECAN TREE IN
MISSISSIPPI.]
PECAN NUT, ILLINOIS NUT (_Hicoria Pecan._ Marshall).--Leaves with
thirteen to fifteen leaflets, oblong-lanceolate, serrate, pointed;
nuts mostly oblong, smooth; husk thin, somewhat four-angled and
four-valved, these at maturity shrinking, and falling apart when
dropping to the ground. Shell of nut generally thin, smooth or
slightly corrugated, varying widely in both form and size from less
than one inch in length to nearly or quite two inches, abruptly
blunt, or long and sharp pointed; the two-lobed cotyledon or kernel
oily, sweet and delicious. A large, tall, but usually slender tree,
with smooth or slightly furrowed bark, as seen in Fig. 45. Mainly
indigenous to river bottoms in the Southern and Southwestern States,
extending northward to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Southern
Iowa.
Synonyms and their authors:
_Juglans Pecan_, Marshall, Arboretum Americanum, 1785.
_Juglans Pecan_, Walter, 1787.
_Juglans olivaeformis_, Willdenow, 1809.
_Carya olivaeformis_, Nuttall, 1818.
_Juglans Illinoiensis_, Wangenheim, 1787.
_Juglans angustifolia_, Aiton, Hortus Kewensis.
_Juglans rubra_, Gaertner.
_Juglans cylindrica_, Lamarck.
SHELLBARK OR SHAGBARK HICKORY (_Hicoria alba_. Clayton).--Leaflets
mostly five, occasionally seven, the three upper ones
obovate-lanceolate, the lower pair much smaller and
oblong-lanceolate, as shown in Fig. 46, all taper-pointed, finely
serrate, and slightly downy underneath. Terminal buds large and
scaly. Fruit globose, somewhat depressed; husk smooth, very thick,
firm, scarcely shrinking at maturity, but opening and falling with
the nuts when ripe. Nuts variable in size, mainly thin-shelled,
white, compressed or flattened, four-angled, with deep corrugations,
blunt, rarely sharp-pointed; kernel large, sweet and excellent. One
of the most common and popular of the indigenous edible nuts,
collected in large quantities as they ripen in autumn, for home use
and for sale, as the demand for this excellent nut is almost
unlimited. A large tree, fifty to eighty feet high, and stem one to
three feet in diameter, with a shaggy or scaly bark, which on old
trees may be readily pulled off in long, shell-like plates. Timber
well known as valuable for many purposes. This species has a very
wide range, of from Maine to Florida in the Eastern States, and
westward to Minnesota, thence southward through eastern Kansas,
Missouri, Indian Territory and eastern Texas.
Synonyms:
_Juglans alba_, Clayton, Flora Virginica, 1739.
_Juglans alba ovata_, Miller, Gard. Dict., 1754.
_Juglans alba_, Linn., Spec. pl., 1754.
_Juglans alba ovata_, Marshall, 1785.
_Juglans compressa (?)_, Willdenow, 1809.
_Juglans exaltata (?)_, Bartram, 1791.
_Juglans alba_, Nuttall, 1818.
_Juglans_ var. _microcarpa_, Nuttall.
_Juglans squamosa (?)_, Lamarck.
_Juglans ovalis (?)_, Wangenheim.
Although Clayton, as with most of the earlier botanists, fails to
give any description of the foliage of the hickories he mentions,
and all have the affix _alba_ (white), yet his reference to the form
of the nut and the scaly bark of the tree is sufficient to enable us
to identify the species as that of our common shellbark hickory of
the Atlantic States, which extends through the regions where he
gathered his botanical specimens.
[Illustration: FIG. 46. LEAF AND STERILE CATKINS OF SHELLBARK
HICKORY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 47. WESTERN SHELLBARK.]
[Illustration: FIG. 48. SECTION WESTERN SHELLBARK.]
BIG SHELLBARK, THICK OR WESTERN SHELLBARK, ETC. (_Hicoria
laciniosa._ Michaux).--Leaflets seven to nine, obovate-oblong,
finely serrate, roughish-downy or pubescent beneath. Buds large,
composed of rather loose grayish scales; the young twigs stout, with
a gray bark, most noticeable in winter. Fruit large, oval to oblong,
usually four-ribbed above the middle, with depressions between; husk
thick, somewhat spongy, shrinking at maturity, and splitting open
from top downward. Nut large, with prominent ridges, and strongly
pointed, but slightly compressed at the sides, as seen in Fig. 47;
shell thick and of a dull yellowish color; kernel moderately large,
as shown across section of nut in Fig. 48, but much smaller in
proportion to the size of the nut than in the two preceding species,
but it is sweet, well flavored, and easily removed from the shell
when cracked. The very large size of these nuts makes them a
favorite, especially where the pecan and the true shellbarks are not
plentiful. These nuts were formerly known as the Springfield or
Gloucester nut. A very large tree, sixty to eighty feet high, and
two to four feet in diameter, with thick, scaly bark, the scales
somewhat thicker than in the common shellbark hickory of the
Atlantic States. A rare tree, except in the valleys west of the
Alleghanies, although it is reported to have been found in Chester
county, Pennsylvania, and thence west to southern Indiana, Illinois,
Missouri, eastern Kansas, and the Indian Territory. Plentiful in the
bottom lands along the Ohio, Mississippi and lower Missouri.
Elliott, in "Botany of South Carolina and Georgia" (1824), says it
is rare in the low country of Carolina, but he does not say that it
is found plentiful anywhere in the South. That he was sometimes in
doubt in regard to the identification of this and other species may
be inferred from his remark, namely: "The greater part of our
hickories resemble each other so closely in their leaves and vary so
much in their fruit that it is very difficult to discriminate the
species."
It is this difficulty of identification which has led to so much
confusion in the application of the specific names, for the earlier
botanists rarely had an opportunity of a close and careful
examination of the trees or other plants which they attempted to
describe. In relation to the species under consideration, we find
that the specific name of _sulcata_, so long in use, was adopted by
Nuttall, from some earlier or contemporaneous author,--a system he
followed with all the different species of the hickory, but without,
in some instances, any discrimination or regard to their adaptation
or validity. If there was anything to show that Willdenow (1796) had
this Western shellbark in mind, or that he or his correspondents in
this country had ever seen or collected it, then we might adopt the
name of _sulcata_ as the original and true one; but in the absence
of such information, with a full and accurate description of the
species and its habitats by Michaux, under the name of _laciniosa_,
I think, in common justice to one of the most eminent dendrologists
who ever visited this country, the name given should stand as the
true one for this species. See Michaux, "North American Sylva," Vol.
I, p. 128.
Synonyms:
_Juglans sulcata (?)_, Willdenow, 1796.
_Juglans laciniosa_, Michaux, 1810.
_Carya sulcata_, Nuttall, 1818.
_Carya cordiformis_, Koch, Dendrologie.
The three preceding species are probably the only ones worthy of
propagation for their fruit, or that have and are likely to yield
varieties of any considerable economic value; but as it is important
that the nut culturist should know the materials he is using, and
whether they be of the best or otherwise, I shall admit all the
species, without regard to their merits or value for cultivation.
MOCKER NUT, BULL NUT, BIG-BUD HICKORY, KING NUT, WHITE-HEART
HICKORY, ETC. (_Hicoria tomentosa._ Michaux).--Leaflets mostly
seven, occasionally nine, large, oblong-obovate, rather long
pointed, slightly serrate, smooth on both sides while young,
becoming roughish downy underneath when fully developed in summer;
leaf-stalks and catkins also somewhat downy. Fruit medium to very
large, round or ovoid, with a very thick woody husk, which splits
nearly or quite down to the base, but usually falling with the
enclosed nut entire, or bursting open as they strike the ground. Nut
very thick shelled, smooth, or strongly four to six angled, white at
first, but becoming a dull brown when exposed to the light. The
kernel is sweet, but so small and firmly imbedded in the thick shell
that it is only to be removed in minute sections, but this is
successfully accomplished by the squirrels, who often throw down the
entire crop from large trees before the shells harden, and then pack
them away in the ground, in old logs, and under the leaves, where
they will not dry for some weeks or months later. An exceedingly
variable species, especially in the size and form of the nuts; on
some trees they are scarcely an inch in diameter, while on others
they are nearly or quite two inches, but always with such a thick,
hard shell as to be nearly worthless for their meats. The largest of
these nuts I have ever seen grow in central and western New York,
where they are called "King" or "Bull" nuts.
[Illustration: FIG. 49. LEAF OF PIGNUT.]
The trees grow to a very large size, or from sixty to eighty feet
high, and two to three feet in diameter, with a thick, deeply
furrowed bark, not scaly. The wood is white, heavy, tough, and
nearly as valuable as the common shellbark hickory. The terminal
buds, and especially those on the young seedlings and suckers
springing up in clearings, are very large, round, short, and covered
with brownish scales, hence one of the local names of big-bud
hickory.
A widely distributed species, or from the valley of the St. Lawrence
to Florida, and along the great lakes to Nebraska, and thence
southward to Texas. Unlike most of the other hickories, this species
seems to prefer thin soils, rocky sandstone ridges, and here in New
Jersey almost disappearing in the rich bottom lands along our creeks
and rivers; at least, this is its habit here in the northern part of
the State.
Synonyms:
_Juglans alba (?)_, Linn., 1754.
_Juglans tomentosa_, Michaux, 1810.
_Carya tomentosa_, Nuttall, 1818.
_Carya tomentosa_ var. _maxima_, Nuttall.
_Carya alba_, Koch, Dendrologie.
PIGNUT, HOGNUT, BROWN HICKORY, BLACK HICKORY, SWITCH-BUD HICKORY
(_Hicoria glabra._ Miller).--Leaflets five to seven, mostly seven
(Fig. 49), ovate-lanceolate, serrate, smooth; fruit pear-shaped or
roundish-obovate; husk very thin, splitting about half way down into
four sections or valves, these usually remaining attached to the nut
for some time after falling, in fact, may often be found within the
husk all through the winter; shell of nut moderately thin but tough,
with a small, bitterish-sweet kernel. A large, rather slender tree
in similar and same localities as the last, with a close bark but
not so deeply furrowed as in the mocker nut (_H. tomentosa_). Of no
special value except as a timber tree, and its slow growth makes it
less deserving of attention than those species that bear large and
edible nuts.
Synonyms:
_Juglans glabra_, Miller, 1768.
_Juglans alba acuminata_, Marshall, 1785.
_Juglans obcordata_, Lamarck.
_Juglans porcina_, Michaux.
_Juglans pyriformis_, Muhlenberg.
_Juglans porcina_, var. _obcordata_, Pursh.
_Juglans porcina_, var. _pyriformis_, Pursh.
_Carya porcina_, Nuttall.
_Carya glabra_, Torrey.
_Carya amara_, var. _porcina_, Darby.
[Illustration: FIG. 50. BITTERNUT.]
[Illustration: FIG. 51. BITTERNUT.]
BITTERNUT, SWAMP HICKORY, PIGNUT (_Hicoria minima._
Marshall).--Leaflets seven to eleven, oblong-lanceolate, serrate,
smooth and thin; fruit globular, with distinct ridges at the seams
(Fig. 50); the husk very thin, and at maturity splitting about
halfway to the base, the four divisions becoming reflexed in
maturing, but not separating and falling apart as in the
thicker-husk species. Nut broadest at the top, sharp-pointed,
obcordata (Fig. 51), slightly depressed; shell very thin, smooth,
white; kernel intensely bitter when fully ripe, but greedily eaten
by squirrels when fresh or in a half milky state. Usually a
medium-sized, graceful tree, with smooth bark, slender twigs, and
small, oblong buds covered with a dense yellow pubescence in winter.
It grows in moist soils, along streams and borders of swamps, and
near springs on hill-sides, from Maine to Florida, and westward to
Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas. Humphrey Marshall described this
species so accurately in his "American Grove," under the name of
_Juglans minima_, p. 68, that there is no good reason to doubt its
identity, nor question the validity of this name, which should
remain as the true and original one, and all others of later date be
placed among the synonyms.
Synonyms:
_Juglans_ (_alba_) _minima_, Marshall, 1785.
_Juglans cordiformis_, Wangenheim, 1787.
_Juglans angustifolia_, Lamarck, 1791.
_Juglans amara_, Michaux, 1810.
_Hickorius amarus_, Rafinesque, 1817.
_Carya amara_, Nuttall, 1818.
NUTMEG HICKORY (_Hicoria myristicaeformis._ Michaux).--Leaflets five
to seven, ovate-lanceolate, pointed, quite smooth on both sides, the
terminal leaflet sessile, not stalked; fruit oval; husk wrinkled and
rough, thick; nut small, oval, short-pointed; the shell furrowed and
very hard, and of a brownish color marked with white lines. Michaux
says: "The shell is so thick that it constitutes two-thirds of the
volume of the nut, which, consequently, is extremely hard, and has a
minute kernel. It is inferior to the pignut."
A medium-size tree with slender branches, found in a few localities
in South Carolina, near swamps and borders of streams, and westward
to Arkansas, where it reaches its greatest development. This hickory
has been so rarely seen by botanists that Michaux's specific name,
given it more than eighty years ago, has fared a better fate than
those of our more common and abundant species; consequently, I have
only one synonym to record, viz.: _Carya amara_, var.
_myristicaeformis_, Cooper, in Smithsonian Report, 1858.
WATER HICKORY, SWAMP HICKORY, BITTER PECAN (_Hicoria aquatica._
Michaux).--Leaflets nine to thirteen, generally eleven, narrow and
obliquely lanceolate-pointed, slightly serrate, thin and smooth;
fruit globular or somewhat egg-shaped, four-ribbed; husk thin,
dividing at maturity down to the base; nut thin-shelled,
four-angled; kernel much wrinkled and very bitter. This is closely
allied to if not a more Southern form of our common bitternut. A
small tree in swamps and river bottoms from North Carolina south to
Florida, and west to Texas.
Synonyms:
_Juglans aquatica_, Michaux.
_Hicorius integrifolia_, Rafinesque.
_Carya aquatica_, Nuttall.
_Carya integrifolia_, Sprengel.
[Illustration: FIG. 52. LARGE, LONG PECAN NUT.]
[Illustration: FIG. 53. OVAL PECAN NUT.]
=Varieties of the Hickories.=--Every one who has ever had occasion
to gather or examine hickory nuts in the forest, or has seen them in
market, must be aware of the fact that there is an almost endless
variety of each and all the different species. But as it is only the
varieties of the pecan and thick- and thin-shelled shagbark
hickories that are likely to be of any economic value to the nut
culturist, all others will be omitted. Of the first or pecan nut the
natural varieties are not only exceedingly numerous, but vary widely
in size, form, thickness of shell, and productiveness of the
individual trees. In some the nuts are produced singly or in pairs,
and from this number up to clusters of seven or eight; these
large-clustered and extra-prolific varieties are most worthy of
special attention, especially when the nuts are of good size and
thin-shelled, as in the large, long pecan (Fig. 52). From this size
they vary, as shown in Figs. 53, 54, 55. Some of the wild varieties
have received local names, and a very few propagated by grafting,
which is probably the most practical means known of multiplying
them, and at the same time preserving their varietal
characteristics. Choice and extra fine ones are constantly being
discovered and brought to notice, and doubtless many more will
follow as the old fields and forests of the South and West are
explored; besides, there are many thousands of seedling trees now
under cultivation, and from these we may expect some marked
variations from the original or wild forms. In Bulletin 105, of the
North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station for 1894, and in
Report of Assistant Pomologist of U. S. Department of Agriculture
for same year, we find the following-named varieties of pecans:
[Illustration: FIG. 54. SMALL OVAL.]
[Illustration: FIG. 55. LITTLE MOBILE.]
ALBA.--Size below medium, cylindrical, with pointed apex; cracking
qualities good; shell of medium thickness; corky shell lining thick,
adhering to the kernel; kernel plump, light colored; quality good.
BILOXI (W. R. Stuart, Ocean Springs, Miss.).--Medium size,
cylindrical, pointed at each end; surface quite regular, light
brown; shell thin; cracking qualities medium; kernel plump, with
yellowish-brown surface; free from astringency, of good quality, and
keeps well without becoming rancid. Introduced several years ago by
W. R. Stuart as Mexican Paper Shell, but the name has since been
changed to Biloxi.
COLUMBIAN (W. R. Stuart, Ocean Springs, Miss.).--Large, cylindrical,
somewhat compressed at the middle, rounding at the base; pointed and
somewhat four-sided at the crown; shell rather heavy; cracking
qualities medium; quality good. In size and form this nut closely
resembles Mammoth, which was introduced in 1890 by Richard
Frotscher, of New Orleans, La.
EARLY TEXAN (Louis Biediger, Idlewild, Tex.).--Size above medium,
short, cylindrical, with rounded base and blunt conical crown; shell
quite thick, shell lining thick, astringent; cracking qualities
medium; kernel not very plump, of mild, nutty flavor; quality good.
GEORGIA MELON.--Size above medium, short, rather blunt at apex;
cracking quality medium; shell rather thick; kernel plump, brown;
meat yellow, moderately tender, pleasant, good.
GONZALES (T. V. Munson, Denison, Tex.).--Above medium size, with
firm, clear shell; quality excellent. Originated in Gonzales county,
Tex.
HARCOURT.--Size medium, short, slightly acorn-shaped; cracking
qualities medium; shell rather thick, but very smooth inside; kernel
short, very plump; meat yellow, very tender, rich, very good.
LONGFELLOW.--Size medium, oblong, cylindrical, somewhat irregular,
enlarging from base to near crown, then sharply conical to the apex;
cracking qualities not first-class; shell of medium thickness;
kernel plump but rather thin, light-colored; meat white, sweetish,
rich, good.
PRIMATE (W. R. Stuart, Ocean Springs, Miss.)--Of medium size,
slender, rather long; shell thin; quality good; ripens in September,
thirty days before other nuts.
RIBERA.--Size above medium, oblong ovate; cracking qualities good;
shell thin; kernel plump, light brown, free from the bitter, red,
corky growth which adheres to the shell; meat yellow, tender, with
rich, delicate, pleasant flavor.
FAUST.--A South Carolina variety of medium to large size, medium
shell and good quality.
FROTSCHER.--A Louisiana variety of large size, very thin shell, and
plump kernel of good quality.
JEWETT.--From Mississippi; a large, long nut, rather irregular;
shell medium; quality very good.
[Illustration: FIG. 56. STUART.]
STUART.--A large, roundish, oblong nut from Mississippi (Fig. 56).
TURKEY EGG.--A variety from Florida; large and thin-shelled.
[Illustration: FIG. 57. VAN DEMAN.]
VAN DEMAN.--A large variety from Mississippi, of oblong form and
thin shell (Fig. 57).
From other sources we collect other names, namely:
IDLEWILD.--An oval shaped nut from Idlewild, Texas. Report of U. S.
Department of Agriculture, 1890.
RISIEN.--A very broad, thick variety, about one inch in diameter,
very blunt at both ends. From San Saba, Texas (Fig. 58).
[Illustration: FIG. 58. RISIEN.]
A peculiar shaped pecan nut is shown in Fig. 59, from Louisiana,
sent under the name of Lady Finger.
[Illustration: FIG. 59. LADY FINGER.]
From the report of the Georgia State Horticultural Society, 1893, we
obtain certain local names without description, as, for instance,
Turkey Egg, Mexican, Colorado, Pride of the Coast, etc. Col. W. R.
Stuart, of Ocean Springs, Miss., who has been called the "father of
pecan culture" in that State, and is the author of "The Pecan and
How to Grow it," adds two more varieties to the above list, viz.:
Beauty and Columbia; the latter, as figured in the book named, is a
very large variety, tapering from a broad base to a sharp point.
Judge Samuel Miller, of Bluffton, Mo., found some very large and
fine varieties of the pecan in his neighborhood several years ago,
on the farm of a man named Meyers, and he purchased the nuts from
the tree bearing the largest in the grove and planted them, and the
seedlings have since been distributed under the name of "Meyers'
Pecan."
Judge Miller kindly sent me a quantity of these nuts, from which I
raised some fifty or more trees, and all have thus far been
uninjured by the cold of our severest winters. From my own
experience in raising pecan trees, and I may add, that of some of my
neighbors, those grown from nuts gathered in the more Southern
States are almost invariably tender here in the North; but those
raised from thoroughly acclimated trees, along the northern limits
of this species, will give us a hardy race, and probably allow of
extending their cultivation far north of their natural range. Those
who intend to try pecan culture in the Northern States should bear
this in mind, and secure nuts and cions from hardy acclimated trees.
=Varieties of the Shellbark.=--Of this species (_H. alba_) there are
as many distinct natural varieties as of the pecan, and while local
or neighborhood names are plentiful enough, they have not, except in
a very few instances, been placed on record in agricultural reports
or other publications. Three small thin-shelled varieties are named
in the Report of the Pomologist of the U. S. Department of
Agriculture for 1891, viz.: Milford, Shimar and Leaming, but neither
has been propagated, and they are probably not worthy of it, because
there are plenty of larger ones with thin shells which would be far
more valuable for cultivation.
[Illustration: FIG. 60. THE ORIGINAL HALES' PAPER-SHELL HICKORY
TREE.]
A careful research extending over a period of a quarter of a century
yields only a solitary instance of the propagation and dissemination
of a variety of the shellbark hickory, and this one is Hales'
Paper-shell, which I named, described and figured in the _Rural
New-Yorker_, Nov. 19, 1870, p. 382, Vol. XXII. I am thus particular
in regard to time and place, because years hence these facts may be
of more importance than at the present day.
[Illustration: FIG. 61. HALES' HICKORY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 62. SECTION OF HALES' HICKORY.]
The original tree of this remarkable variety is growing upon the
farm of Mr. Henry Hales, near Ridgewood, N. J., and on bottom land
within a few rods of the Saddle river. The tree is probably more
than a hundred years old, and is about seventy-five feet high, and
nearly two feet in diameter at the base, and of the shape shown in
Fig. 60, taken from a sketch made in the fall of 1894. There are a
large number of the shellbark hickories growing near by, and while
there are several excellent and very large varieties among them, the
one I have named is by far the largest and most distinct in form,
and with the thinnest shell; in fact, the shell is much thinner than
in many of the pecan nuts that reach our Northern markets from the
South. The size and form of these nuts is clearly shown in Fig. 61,
while the thin shell and thick, plump kernel is seen in the
cross-section, Fig. 62. It will be noticed that these nuts differ
from the ordinary varieties of this species in the absence of the
sharp ridges and depressions running from base to point, the surface
of the shell being broken up into irregular, wavy lines, somewhat
resembling the shell of the more common varieties of the Persian
walnuts. I have occasionally seen very similar varieties,--but of
smaller size,--among the mixed lots of hickory nuts on sale in our
city markets, also oblong nuts, as shown in Fig. 63, but of course
there is no way of tracing these to the trees producing them.
[Illustration: FIG. 63. LONG SHELLBARK HICKORY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 64. SHELLBARK MISSOURI.]
Another merit, in addition to the large size and thin shell of the
Hales' Paper-shell, is its keeping qualities, the kernels rarely
becoming rancid, even when two or more years old, and from a long
acquaintance with this nut and hundreds of other varieties gathered
from all parts of the United States, I am inclined to place it at
the head of the list, and as the most valuable sort as yet
discovered. It is true, however, that I have found in the forests,
and also received, many very large and superior nuts of this
species, that are well worthy of propagation and cultivation, but
they have been, in the main, of the typical form, and not of so
distinct a type as this Paper-shell. Judge Miller sent me a few nuts
of a shellbark found in Missouri, that were even larger, and with
fully as thin shell as that of the Hales' (Fig. 64), but upon making
further inquiries in regard to the tree that produced them, I
learned that an incoming railroad line had destroyed it, and thus
one more tree of inestimable value had been sacrificed in the march
of this progressive age.
=Varieties of the Western Shellbark.=--The typical form of the thick
or Western shellbark (_H. laciniosa_) has already been shown on a
preceding page, but some remarkable and valuable varieties have been
found in the Western States, and no doubt others will be, when more
attention is paid than at present to the natural food products of
our forests. The tendency of this species, in its variations, is
usually in the direction of an elongation of the nuts, even when
there is no decrease in the thickness of the shell, as shown in Fig.
65, taken from one of a number of long varieties collected in the
Western States; and while they do not possess any special merit,
they attract attention, owing to their unusual form.
[Illustration: FIG. 65. LONG WESTERN SHELLBARK.]
[Illustration: FIG. 66. FRESH NUSSBAUMER HYBRID.]
NUSSBAUMER'S HYBRID.--Several years ago I received a specimen of a
very remarkable nut from Judge Samuel Miller, of Bluffton, Mo.,
under the name of "Nussbaumer's Hybrid Pecan." Judge Miller informed
me that he had received it from Mr. J. J. Nussbaumer, Mascoutah, St.
Clair Co., Ill., who claimed that it was a hybrid between the pecan
and the large western shellbark hickory (_H. laciniosa_). I had an
illustration made of this specimen, and it appeared, with a brief
description, in the _American Agriculturist_ for Dec., 1884, p. 546.
Soon after receiving the specimen nut from Judge Miller I opened
correspondence with Mr. Nussbaumer, and learned from him that only
one tree bearing such nuts had ever been found, and this was of
large size, six and a half feet in circumference, and about fifty
feet high, the bark somewhat like that of the hickory but nearer the
pecan. Mr. Nussbaumer sent me specimens of the green nuts with
leaves and twigs, from the original tree. The nuts, however, of that
season (1884), were badly infested with the "hickory-shuck worm"
(_Grapholitha caryana_, Fitch), and these had so ruined the shucks,
and even eaten into the shells of the nuts, that few of the
specimens received were fully developed. But from two nuts I had a
sketch made while they were fresh and of natural size, as shown in
Fig. 66, the dark, irregular marks on the husks showing where the
shuck worm had attacked them. One of these nuts is shown in Fig. 67,
also natural size. I planted one of the nuts, from which I now have
a tree about ten feet high, but although ten years old it has not
fruited, and, so far as I can judge from its appearance, is a pure
Western shellbark, with no indication of hybridity; but of course
this does not prove that the original or parent tree is not a
hybrid, as claimed by Mr. Nussbaumer, Judge Miller, and, if I am
rightly informed, Prof. T. J. Burrill, of the University of
Illinois.
[Illustration: FIG. 67. NUSSBAUMER'S HYBRID.]
However widely opinions may differ in regard to the origin of this
variety, it is certainly a most remarkable nut, and I regret that
the exact location of the original tree has entirely escaped my most
careful seeking; and of late years I have been unable to learn
anything of Mr. Nussbaumer, further than that he had moved from
Mascoutah to Okawville, Ill., the last letter received from him
being dated Dec. 13, 1887. In one of his letters he said that he had
raised a large number of seedlings from this supposed hybrid, and if
these are still alive they would be of much scientific interest,
especially if any of them showed the distinct characteristics of
either of the supposed parents.
It would certainly be a pity to have such a remarkable nut lost to
the world, because if propagated by grafting or by any other mode to
insure perpetuating its varietal characteristics, its value could
scarcely be estimated. The nuts are as thin-shelled as the common
pecan, the kernel sweet and good, and in addition, the tree is a
native of a northern State, and would, no doubt, prove as hardy as
our common shellbark hickories.
THE FLOYD PECAN.--This is another supposed-to-be hybrid, and of the
same species of hickory as the last; but the one nut which I
received differed from the Nussbaumer by being somewhat larger, and
the shell with more prominent ridges and a little thicker. It was
said to have been found somewhere in southern Indiana by a Mr.
Floyd, who, believing it to be of great value, refused to give any
information likely to aid any one else to locate the original tree,
neither would he part with any of the nuts except the one specimen
which eventually came into my hands. Of course all horticulturists
know that seedlings raised from such freaks among nut trees are far
too uncertain to be of much value, but ignorance in such matters
often leads the possessor of an article slightly differing from the
ordinary to permit his imagination to warp his good sense.
=Cultivation of the Hickories.=--The hickories have been so seldom
planted in our Northern States for any purpose, that anything like a
systematic cultivation of these trees is a thing almost unknown. Of
course there is no good reason why the hickories should not be
multiplied and cultivated as well as other kinds of trees, but in
some unknown way the idea became prevalent that these trees could
not be transplanted with any assurance of success, and this has been
kept alive, either through ignorance or by those whose interest led
them to encourage the planting of the rapid-growing and easily
propagated kinds, instead of those which, though less profitable to
the producer, would be of far greater value to the purchaser. It
must be admitted, however, that the hickories are not so tenacious
of life as the willows, poplars, elms and similar kinds of trees,
requiring more care in their cultivation if they are to be
transplanted when of a proper size for setting along roadsides or
elsewhere, for shade and ornament, but they are certainly no more
difficult to make live than the beech, oak, tulip and various
species of the magnolia.
The slow growth of the hickories while young is another objection
often urged as a fault of these trees, but there is nothing lost but
time in waiting, and this passes just as swiftly whether we plant
trees that may in ten years yield a golden harvest, or nothing but
leaves; besides, the hickories respond as readily to stimulants and
good care generally as the common fruit trees of our orchards. While
the farmers of our Northern States are generally quite indifferent
as to what becomes of their old hickory trees, and seldom attempt to
preserve the wild seedlings that spring up in the fields and on the
borders of forests, their fellow countrymen of the Southern States
have, within the past two or three decades, discovered that they
possess an inexhaustible source of wealth in their common pecan nut.
Formerly these trees were sacrificed whenever a choice piece of
tough timber was wanted, and often merely to secure the entire crop
of nuts without waiting for nature to drop them within reach; but
the advent of many lines of railroads, steamboats, and other means
of communication with the great cities and their markets, has
changed this inclination to destroy into one of preservation. The
old pecan trees are not only appreciated as a source of income, but
thousands and tens of thousands of seedlings are now annually raised
and planted, to insure larger returns in the near or distant future.
In fact, pecan culture has already become an important industry in
several of the Southern States, although in point of age it is
little more than a fledgling. We have no statistics to show what the
annual crop averages in pounds or bushels, but it must be something
enormous if we make our estimate from the quantities received and
distributed in the Northern States. But with all the efforts put
forth to secure a supply of these nuts, and the high prices they
command at both wholesale and retail, the demand seems to keep well
in advance of the supply, and this will, in all probability,
continue as our population increases. In the way of demand, the same
is true with our northern species of the shellbark hickories, which
were formerly very abundant, but of late years have become rather
scarce, for reasons too obvious to call for any explanation at this
time.
In selecting a location for planting and cultivating the hickories,
including the pecan, a moist, deep soil is certainly preferable to
any other, especially for the three species and their varieties most
promising for this purpose, because we find them growing wild in
such situations and soils. But while these naturally deep, rich and
moist soils are to be preferred, no one need hesitate to plant
hickories on light, dry, and even poor soils, if they are properly
enriched, or a few shovelfuls of fine old stable manure is
thoroughly mixed with the earth in which the roots are set, and then
a mulch applied to the surface to keep the soil moist. Almost any
old waste fibrous material, such as leaves, straw, hay, weeds or
coarse manure, will answer for mulching newly planted trees, and it
should be applied to a depth of three or four inches, and renewed
annually, or as often as necessary to prevent the growth of grass or
weeds growing within three or four feet of the stem of the tree. In
all dry climates and soils mulching should be considered an
important operation, not to be omitted until the trees are from six
to ten years old, and it may usually be continued a longer time with
benefit.
=Propagation.=--All the species of the hickory are very readily
grown from nuts gathered when ripe and planted within a few weeks;
or they may be mixed with or stratified between layers of sand and
light soil and buried in the open ground for the winter, and the
planting deferred until the following spring. They are not at all
delicate and will withstand considerable drying and neglect, and
will grow, if stored in a cool cellar, without being packed in
either soil, sand or other material. But as I have had no occasion
to determine how much neglect these nuts will withstand, nor to what
extremes of adverse conditions it is safe to subject them, I shall
leave investigation in this direction to others, because in general
practice no valuable seed or plant grows any too readily and freely
to satisfy the cultivator, and for this reason I recommend either
planting hickory nuts in the fall, or burying them between layers of
light soil or sand, sifting out and planting early the following
spring. If any considerable quantity is to be planted they should be
dropped three or four inches apart in shallow trenches and covered
about two inches deep. The distance between the rows may be from two
to three feet, depending upon the implements to be used in their
cultivation.
The soil for a seedbed should, of course, be made rich and deep, or
the same as recommended for chestnuts, and all the means usually
employed to assist the growth of cultivated plants are applicable to
nut trees. I may also add that cutworms, white grubs and other
noxious insects are enemies of nut-tree seedlings as well as garden
vegetables. The seedling hickories should be treated as advised for
chestnuts; that is, dug up when one or, at the latest, two years
old, and their central or taproot shortened to at least one-half
their original length, and then reset in nursery rows, and at a
distance of twelve to fifteen inches apart in the row. If grown in
ordinary upland, the transplanted seedlings will make a better
growth if heavily mulched than under the usual system of clean
cultivation, and it is usually less expensive; besides, by keeping
the surface of the soil cool and moist, we encourage and assist the
production of fibrous lateral roots, which, as a rule, are none too
abundant on seedling hickories, no matter under what conditions or
system of cultivation they are raised.
When the seedlings have grown in the nursery rows two or three
years, they will probably be large enough for planting where they
are to remain permanently; but if, for any reason, they are not
disposed of, then they should be again transplanted,--the larger
roots shortened,--and re-set in good rich soil. The object of
transplanting is to insure the production of small fibrous roots,
and a frequent renewal of the same, close to the main stem or stock,
as long as the trees remain in the nursery, whether this be two or
twenty years. This is somewhat of an expensive operation, but the
value of stock thus handled is enhanced far more than the cost of
such transplanting, and purchasers are, or at least should be,
willing to pay a fair price for such trees.
It is the natural habit of the hickories, as well as many other
kinds of deciduous trees, to produce in their earlier stages of
growth rather large, deeply penetrating, naked roots, with few small
fibers, and in this condition they are not so readily and
successfully transplanted as the kinds possessing a more ramified
root system. This, perhaps, has misled many persons to believe that
certain kinds of trees, like the hickories, could not be moved at
all, or at least not with any assurance of being made to live. This
idea has become so prevalent among inexperienced cultivators, and, I
regret to add, often reiterated by theorists, that it has
discouraged many who otherwise would have raised and planted nut
trees in preference to other kinds.
Admitting that it is the general habit of most kinds of forest trees
to produce deeply penetrating taproots, when grown from seed, it
proves nothing more than that these parts may be of some importance
to the plants while they are young, and under natural conditions,
yet they are not absolutely necessary, and, at most, are only
temporary organs, like the tails of tadpoles, always disappearing
with maturity.
Any one at all observing, and having had an opportunity of examining
limited or extended areas of forest trees thrown over by hurricanes,
must have noticed that no tree of any considerable size and age
possessed a taproot, but had been for years kept in its upright
position by lateral brace-roots, and through these it had also
obtained nutriment from the surface soil. Some of my correspondents
in the South have expressed their surprise at not finding any trace
of the original central roots on old pecan trees, when blown over by
severe wind storms. But it is the same everywhere with forest trees
and where the soil is naturally loose and moist: the principal or
supporting roots spread out widely and remain near the surface, and
the central roots or taproots disappear much earlier than in dry
soils.
In multiplying trees under artificial conditions, we remove the
taproots, not only for convenience in transplanting, but also to
hasten and increase the production of surface lateral roots, and
more than this, we lessen the years of luxuriant sterility, securing
earlier fruiting by such operations as root pruning and frequent
transplanting.
=Budding and Grafting.=--I have never known of an instance of
successful budding of the hickory, at least in the ordinary way
during the summer months. What is called "annular budding" in early
spring with buds of the previous season, is said to have been
successfully practiced with the pecan at the South, but this mode of
propagation is more of the nature of grafting than of what is
usually understood as budding. But I have been unable to obtain any
statistics in regard to the proportion of buds that any propagator
or experimenter has made live by this or other modes of propagation.
Col. Stuart says, in "The Pecan," p. 45, "There is a method known as
'annular budding,' which proves quite successful." He then proceeds
to describe the operation, as given in all works on the propagation
of trees and plants during the past hundred years or more, but not a
word to indicate what he considers a "success,"--whether it be once
or fifty times in a hundred, or if he ever succeeded in making an
annular bud unite to the stock; I am more inclined to think that he
never did, than otherwise.
In Bulletin No. 105, "Nut Culture for North Carolina," issued from
the N. C. State Experiment Station, 1894, Mr. W. A. Taylor,
Assistant Pomologist U. S. Department of Agriculture, in referring
to budding and grafting of these trees, says: "These latter
operations are less successful with the pecan than most fruit trees,
though they are by no means impossible to accomplish. On seedlings
one or two years old annular budding in early summer succeeds best."
But here again we are left in doubt in regard to what the writer
considers "a success." Then, again, the line between the "possible"
and "impossible," in horticultural matters, is a rather difficult
one to determine, and Mr. Taylor fails to cite a single instance in
which either annular or any other form of either budding or grafting
had been successfully practiced. The Bulletins issued from the
Division of Pomology of the Department of Agriculture, give us no
information whatever on this subject of propagation of the
hickories, further than to repeat the old formulas of annular,
splice and cleft grafting; but as to results they have always been
provokingly silent.
Having been repeatedly assured, by men who presumed to know, that
the pecan tree was successfully propagated in the South by grafting,
and many thousands annually raised in this way, it seems strange
that such plants are so rarely offered by nurserymen. Seedlings of
choice varieties are, of course, abundant enough, but a man might,
with as much propriety, offer seedling Bartlett pears or Baldwin
apples, as pecan trees, expecting to perpetuate varieties. In
corresponding with Mr. P. J. Berckmans, of the Fruitland Nurseries
of Augusta, Ga., whose experience and acquaintance with the fruits
of the South are, without doubt, in advance of any other
horticulturist of the past or even the present generation, in reply
to my request for information on grafting pecans, he writes: "For
the past five or six years we have grafted various varieties of the
pecan nuts. I do not know of any other nurseryman South who offers
grafted trees. I presume the reason of this is, the great difficulty
in having the grafts take, as we seldom have more than fifteen to
twenty-five per cent. grow. We usually crown graft in February,
using one-year-old seedlings grown in nursery rows. Owing to the
small percentage of grafts which grow, grafted trees must,
necessarily, be quite expensive, and for this reason there are so
few attempts made in this method of propagation."
Mr. Berckmans makes no reference to annular budding of the pecan, so
strongly and frequently recommended by the several writers already
quoted, although I am certain that he is as familiar with this mode
of propagation as any one else, and would have practiced it had he
found it in any way superior to crown grafting. From all that I have
been able to learn through a rather extended correspondence, in
regard to the propagation of the pecan nut tree in the South, I
conclude that they are occasionally and sparingly grafted, but with
such indifferent results that they are not at all numerous in either
orchards or nurseries.
From certain remarks of Col. Stuart, in his essay on "Pecan
Culture," I infer that he has sold grafted trees, for he says:
"It costs no more to care for the grove of choice trees than of
poor ones; then, again, the grafted or budded ones come into
profitable bearing three years earlier than seedlings. Here is a
case in point: Last November (1892) we paid, in cash, two
hundred and forty-eight dollars for the nuts which grew upon one
tree, the crop of one year. The tree is twenty inches through at
its base, and forty-five feet high; such a size tree would grow
in twenty or twenty-five years. Now small nuts from the same
size tree will sell for not more than fifteen to twenty dollars.
Another tree only ten years old bore thirteen and a half dollars
worth. These choice nuts are such as we grow seedlings from; we
sell a great many more seedlings than we do grafted or budded
trees, simply because they are so much cheaper, and people in
general do not realize that such a vast difference exists
between the profits of seedling and grafted or budded trees; but
such is the case, and such it will always remain for aught we
can see."
Soon after I published the description of the Hales' Paper-shell
hickory in 1870, requests for cions were received from nurserymen
and many amateur horticulturists, who were anxious to try their
skill in grafting this excellent variety. Mr. Hales generously
responded, and sent cions to a large number of correspondents in
various parts of the country, because he was desirous of having the
variety preserved and propagated. During the following ten years the
old original tree was kept pretty well pruned, in filling orders for
cions; those sent to nurserymen were to be raised on shares,
one-half of all the successfully grafted trees to be returned to Mr.
Hales. Being a near neighbor, my opportunities for keeping informed
as to the result of this arrangement was all that I could desire. To
one nursery firm in central New York Mr. Hales sent about one
thousand cions per annum for four successive years, and in return
received just four feeble grafted plants as his share of the total
product of the four thousand cions. But as the four plants received
soon died, he closed that account as one of total loss. Previously,
however, he had sent a quantity of cions to Mr. J. R. Trumpy, of the
Kissena Nurseries, Flushing, N. Y., whose skill as a propagator of
ligneous plants is probably second to that of no man in this
country; the result proved that our faith in the man was not
misplaced, for Mr. Hales received for his share of the experiment
something over two dozen grafted trees, and most of these are now
handsome specimens ten to twenty feet high. Just what percentage of
the cions set were made to unite and grow I have not been informed,
but the experiment was, doubtless, rather unsatisfactory as a
commercial transaction.
In addition to the plants sent to Mr. Hales, there have been quite a
number distributed among the customers of the nurseries named;
consequently, we are pretty well assured of the perpetuation of this
remarkably fine variety, even when the original tree succumbs to old
age, or should it be accidentally destroyed. I am inclined to give
Mr. Trumpy credit for being the first man to graft the shellbark
hickory in this or any other country, and make the cions unite and
grow, for I have failed to find any instance of success in this mode
of propagating these trees, prior to his with the Hales'
Paper-shell.
In reply to a note sent him a few months since, asking: "How did or
do you graft the hickories?" he replied as follows:
"I put the hickory stocks in pots in the spring, and graft them
the following spring, say in April, and in the house. The cions
are cut during the winter, so as to keep them in good order
until wanted for use. I find it is better to operate in April
than earlier in the winter. I also graft them out of doors about
the beginning of May, when the stocks are growing. They will
succeed very well out of doors, provided the stocks are large
enough for the cions. Any kind of grafting will do, but crown
grafting is the best. I have not done much of late in the way of
grafting hickories in the nursery, not having suitable stocks;
besides, when the weather becomes warm enough for outside work,
vegetation pushes far too rapidly to give a man a chance to do
much of this kind of grafting."
Since the above was written and while these pages were being put in
type, Mr. Jackson Dawson, of the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain,
Mass., has given his method of grafting the hickories, in _Garden
and Forest_, Feb. 19, 1896, as follows:
"My method," writes Mr. Dawson, "has been to side-graft, using a
cion with part of the second year's wood attached, binding it
firmly and covering it with damp sphagnum until the union has
been made. The best time I have found for the operation under
glass has been during February, and the plants have been kept
under glass until midsummer, and wintered the first year in a
cold frame. In all the genera I find certain species which may
be called free stocks,--that is, stocks which take grafts more
readily than others. Thus, nearly all the oaks will graft
readily on _Quercus Robur_; the birches will graft more easily
on _Betula alba_ than on others; so of the hickories,
observation has led me to believe that the best stock is the
bitternut, _Hicoria minima_. This species grows almost twice as
rapidly as the common shagbark hickory, and while young the
cambium is quite soft. I should advise anyone who wishes to
propagate hickories on a large scale to grow stocks of this
species in boxes not more than four inches deep. In this way all
the roots can be saved and there will be no extreme taproot, and
when shaken out of the boxes the plants are easily established
in pots and ready for grafting. If taken up in the ordinary way
from the woods, it requires almost two years to get them well
rooted, and often the stocks die for want of roots after the
grafts have really taken. If grown in rich soil, the stocks will
be large enough to use in one or two years. I should then pot
them early in the fall, keeping them from heavy frosts, and
bringing them into the house about the first of January, and as
soon as they begin to make roots. I should side-graft them close
to the collar and plunge them in sphagnum moss, leaving the top
bud of the graft out to the air. The graft ought to be well
united about the last of March, when the plants should be taken
from the sphagnum and set in the body of the house to finish
their growth."
All who have had any experience in the propagation of trees by
grafting in spring, are well aware of the flight of time, in the
hurry of work that must be done in a few days or not at all. It is
true that the season for grafting may be prolonged or extended a
little by cutting the cions in winter and storing them in a cool,
moist place, where they remain dormant after vegetation has started
in the open air; but this does not affect the stocks, and these may
come on slowly or rapidly, varying with the seasons, and the grafter
must not only watch for opportune moments, but take his chances of
striking the right time and conditions, in order to be successful.
With such hard wood trees as the hickories it is better to be a
little ahead of time than a few days too late, for frosts, and even
quite a severe freeze, will not injure a dormant cion, and under the
most favorable conditions the union between stock and cion is a
rather slow process. For this reason I advise giving as much time as
possible, and while I do not claim to having had any personal
experience as a grafter, in the South, still I am inclined to think
that grafting in the fall, and not later than December, would be
preferable to later in winter or spring. By giving the cion and
stock two or three months in which to form granulations and
cohesion, there would be more certainty of success. Of course, I now
refer to what is called crown grafting on the root below the surface
of the ground, and when the cion is fixed in place with the usual
ligatures of waxed paper or cloth, the soil is drawn back into place
and the cion entirely covered with it, but very lightly over the
terminal bud.
[Illustration: FIG. 68. CROWN GRAFTING ON ROOTS OF THE HICKORY.]
Where small stocks are not at hand, the roots of large trees may be
severed and the end partly lifted towards the surface, as shown in
Fig. 68, and when grafted, allowed to remain in position until the
following season, and then taken up entire or with roots enough to
insure future growth. The same or a similar process may be practiced
to propagate a choice variety of the hickory, and a mere severing of
the roots will insure the production of suckers from near the
severed end, as shown in Fig. 69.
[Illustration: FIG. 69. SPROUTS FROM SEVERED HICKORY ROOTS.]
In grafting isolated stocks in this way, a small or large stake
should be placed by the side of each, to indicate their position,
and also protect them from being trampled upon. I make this
suggestion because, in my own experience, it has often proved
successful with various kinds of hard-wooded trees and shrubs that
failed when grafted in the spring. Here in the North it is rather
difficult, as well as expensive, to protect cions set in the open
ground in the fall; but in the South it is different, and a handful
of almost any coarse litter would be sufficient to prevent severe
freezing.
But grafting in the fall in the open ground is unnecessary, where
small seedling stocks are used in the propagation of any kind of
tree; in fact, nurserymen do very little grafting of this kind in
spring, for they learned, by long experience, that the most
economical and certain method of multiplying such trees is to take
up the stocks in the fall, and then graft them indoors during the
winter, having stocks and cions stored in cool cellars or pits,
where they will be readily accessible when wanted. Apples, pears,
quinces, grapes, and many other kinds of hardy trees, shrubs and
vines are now extensively propagated by grafting during the winter
months, and I do not know of any good reason why the hickories and
other closely allied nut trees should not be multiplied in this way.
I have tried it, on a limited scale, with the shellbark hickories,
and with fair success, and in my opinion it is the only way by which
the hickories, including the pecan, can be multiplied cheaply enough
to become of commercial importance.
The small stocks of one or two years old should be taken up in the
fall, and then crown grafted any time from December to March in the
Northern States, but the earlier the better; then pack away the
grafted stocks in moss or soil, in a cool cellar, or heel-in
elsewhere, as, for instance, in pits or frames, where they will not
be frozen, and yet cool enough to prevent active growth.
In the spring the grafted stocks should be planted out in nursery
rows, and deep enough to have the top of the cion just level with
the surface after the soil has been settled about it by a shower or
heavy rains. The plants must be handled with care, so as not to
disturb the cions. Mulching will, of course, be beneficial in dry
seasons, and especially if the stocks are set in ordinary
well-drained soils. In selecting wood for cions, twigs of the
previous season's growth are usually preferred, but it is not
necessary, nor is it advisable to discard all except the extreme end
of the shoot or that containing a terminal bud, as some writers have
advised, to prevent rapid loss of moisture by evaporation, for a
drop of wax will seal the end of a cion as thoroughly and
effectually as a natural bud; besides, the lower part of the annual
twigs is often more firm and really better for grafting than the
upper and less sturdy wood, and the lateral buds on it will push
just as readily as the terminal one. The cion may be three or four
inches long, and contain two or more buds. The sealing of the upper
end of a cion that is not protected by a terminal bud is certainly
important with all of the hickories, for in this genus of trees the
pith is large and continuous, not intersected or cut off by a thin
partition of wood at the joints, as seen in many trees, shrubs and
vines. This large and continuous pith in the hickories is another
reason why the cions succeed best if set below the crown and in or
on the fleshy roots having no pith. They may be set on one side, as
in splice grafting, or in the center, or in a cleft made for their
reception with a sharp knife, then bound with waxed paper, or
wrapped with bass, raffia, or other similar material, and afterwards
covered with melted wax to exclude air and water from the joints and
wounds.
In this mode of grafting hickories it is not necessary to employ the
entire root or stock, if it is of large size, for a single cion; for
pieces of from six to twelve inches long, containing a few lateral
fibers, will answer the purpose, and it will be found, in practice,
that these sections of the large fleshy roots contain so much
vitality that, if the cions set in them fail to grow, they will
throw up sprouts from adventitious buds during the ensuing summer.
Almost any fair-sized piece of root left in the ground, when digging
up hickory trees large or small, is pretty certain to throw up
sprouts, this not only showing their great vitality, but that
propagation by root cuttings is perfectly practicable and may be
utilized whenever and wherever it may be desirable. The man who
attempts to raise hickories from root cuttings must have patience,
for very frequently the cuttings will remain apparently dormant in
the ground one entire season before the sprouts appear above the
surface. I will also add that this slow or retarded germination
frequently occurs with the nuts, especially if they have become
somewhat dry before planting.
For commercial purposes root-grafting small stock, as described,
during the fall and winter, gives promise of being the best and most
practicable system of multiplying varieties; but there is much yet
to be learned in regard to details, and hundreds of carefully
conducted experiments may be necessary to determine the exact time,
condition and mode of operation. It may be that very early grafting
is better than late, or that we have not, as yet, found the best
species for stocks, and that a half-ripened one will be preferable
to one fully matured. Neither has it, as yet, been determined what
kind of material is best in which to store the grafted roots: sand,
soil or sphagnum (moss) from the swamps; or whether they should be
kept very moist, or comparatively dry; very cold, or moderately
warm. Here is a wide field for experiments, and a most interesting
one; for the successful propagation of the hickories by any mode
that will insure the perpetuation and rapid multiplication of
varieties, means millions of dollars added to the wealth of the
country.
=Age of Fruiting.=--We hear much of the precociousness of pecan
trees in the South, and many are reported as coming into bearing at
the age of six to ten years from the time of planting the nut; but
these are probably exceptional instances of early fruiting and not
the rule, although in a favorable soil and climate it is to be
expected that such trees will push forward more rapidly than under
less favorable conditions. Grafted trees will, of course, produce
fruit in less time than seedlings, and as this mode of propagation
becomes more general, and repeated in a direct ancestral line, the
cions for each successive generation of trees being taken from
mature or bearing specimens, the precocious and productive habit
will eventually become intensified, as it has been in all of our
long-cultivated fruit trees propagated by artificial methods. We
have so intensified the productiveness of many kinds of cultivated
fruits by selection, that it has become more of a fault, than a
merit to be encouraged.
The nut trees are amenable to the same physiological laws as other
kinds, and in their propagation by grafting with cions from bearing
specimens we hasten maturity in the offspring. This has been fully
demonstrated in many varieties of the Persian walnuts and European
chestnuts. Here in the Northern States we have had so little
experience with grafted hickories of any species, that really
nothing is yet known as to how they will respond to this mode of
propagation, further than that they grow rapidly and give promise of
being fruitful. Seedling trees are, as a rule, of slow growth,
rarely attaining a bearing age and size under twenty years, and with
the shellbarks thirty or forty years usually pass before anything
like a crop of nuts is gathered. Something may be gained, in the way
of time, by frequent transplantings and pruning, but more by
grafting seedlings from old and mature trees. Two grafts of the
Hales' hickory commenced bearing at the age of sixteen years.
=Planting for Profit.=--There are, doubtless, many thousands of
acres of half-denuded woodlands in almost every State in the Union,
both North and South, that could be readily utilized for growing
hickory timber, and much of such lands is almost useless for other
purposes; but timber culture and forestry is a subject which I have
discussed elsewhere,[1] while the object of this work is to aid my
readers in producing something that may be utilized as food. When
the hundreds and thousands of miles of our public highways are
shaded with hickory and other nut-bearing trees of the best species
and varieties, it will be time enough to begin planting such kinds
elsewhere. As roadside trees they cannot fail to be profitable,
largely enhancing the value of adjoining land; for in addition to
being equally as ornamental as other kinds, they yield fruit always
in demand at remunerative prices. The three species of the hickory
and their varieties recommended for cultivation all thrive best in
moist soils, but by occasional watering or thorough mulching they
will succeed almost anywhere, especially in naturally dry locations.
[Footnote 1: Practical Forestry.]
=Insect Enemies.=--The hickories, as with all other nut-bearing
trees, have numerous insect enemies, but these are neither so
numerous nor destructive as to seriously interfere with their growth
in general, or with their productiveness. Insects may occasionally
become exceedingly numerous in certain localities for a few years,
then suddenly or slowly disappear; but this we must expect, as one
of the coexisting phases of all agricultural pursuits.
Collectively the hickories have no considerable number of
destructive insect enemies, but if we count all the species of the
various orders that have been found occasionally, or otherwise,
feeding on the leaves, buds, fruit, twigs, bark, or boring in the
solid wood, they make a very formidable list of names, or about one
hundred and seventy-five in all; but fully ninety per cent. of these
depredators are scarcely known, except to a few professional
entomologists, and unless they become more destructive in the future
than they are at present, or have been in years past, nut culturists
have little to fear from their depredations. Among the most common
species of insects injurious to the hickory, the following may prove
most annoying to the cultivator.
[Illustration: FIG. 70.]
THE HICKORY-TWIG GIRDLER (_Oncideres cingulatus._ Say).--A small
yellowish-gray beetle, a little less than an inch long, usually
appearing in this latitude during August, the females depositing
their eggs in the twigs of from a quarter to a half-inch in
diameter. On old large trees the loss of a few or many of these is
scarcely noticed; but on young seedlings or grafted stock it is
quite a different affair, for on such plants the females usually
select the leader in preference to the lateral twigs in which to
deposit their eggs. The female girdles the twigs for the purpose of
providing proper and acceptable food for her progeny; that is, first
the green, then the slowly drying, then the perfectly hard, seasoned
hickory or whatever kind she may have attacked. Selecting a suitable
twig, she rests upon it, usually with head downward (Fig. 70), and
with her mandibles cuts out a ring of bark about one-twelfth of an
inch wide, and deep enough to reach the firm wood underneath. The
place selected for this annular incision may be only a few inches
from the terminal bud, or a foot below it, and in some instances she
will cut two incisions on the same twig some distance apart, but
usually there is only one on a twig. While cutting this incision she
will sometimes rest long enough from her labors to deposit an egg in
the bark above. The number of eggs she deposits in the twig is
probably variable, but three full-grown grubs is the most I have
ever found, and the larger proportion examined had only one. This
girdling of the twig prevents the flow of sap, and the leaves soon
wither and drop off, and the bark and wood shrivel and become hard
and dry; but in the meantime the eggs have hatched and the minute
grubs have bored their way through the soft bark and reached the
pith, feeding in this while acquiring size and strength of jaws that
will enable them to consume more solid food later and during the
succeeding winter, spring and summer. Some do not reach maturity
until the second summer; at least, in this latitude, as I have found
after very careful observation and while collecting many hundreds of
specimens. I will say, however, that this insect is usually referred
to by entomologists as rather rare, and in general it is, but some
years ago, in an old clearing near by where there was a great number
of young hickory seedlings and sprouts, it was for a season or two
very abundant; then it suddenly disappeared, and I have not taken a
half-dozen specimens since. The grubs bore out the wood in the
infested twig, and in most instances so completely as to leave only
a thin shell of the wood or bark, by the time they have reached
maturity and are ready to pass into their imago or perfect-winged
stage.
This species of twig girdler also attacks the apple, pear,
persimmon, elm, and other kinds of trees, and with those like the
apple, with a soft and brittle wood, the girdled twigs are
frequently broken off by the winds; but this rarely occurs with the
hickories, and we can usually find the stumps remaining on the trees
years after the beetles have emerged. The only way to keep this pest
in check is to cut off and burn the girdled twigs any time before
the larvae have reached maturity, and as the girdled dead twigs are
readily seen, the gathering is not difficult, from medium-sized
trees.
THE PAINTED HICKORY BORER (_Cyllene pictus._ Drury).--This is,
perhaps, one of the most common and widely distributed of all the
hickory borers, but, so far as my observations have extended, it
rarely attacks young or healthy trees of any age; in fact, I have
never found it in or about growing trees, but I have seen it, by the
thousands, breeding in decaying specimens and in hickory cordwood
cut during the winter months and ranked up in shady places. A
hickory tree cut down in fall or winter, and left on the ground or
cut up into cordwood, is pretty sure to attract this borer early in
spring, the females swarming over the bark, depositing their eggs
upon it, and by the ensuing autumn the wood will be fairly
honeycombed if this insect is at all abundant. The general color of
the beetle is black, and the size as shown in Fig. 71. There are
three narrow, whitish bands across the top of the thorax, and one
slightly broader band at the extreme point of the wing-covers; but
the next band is in the form of an inverted V; the point of the
[Inverted V] does not quite touch the broad lateral band, as in the
closely allied species known as the locust borer (_C. robiniae_),
with which it is often confounded; besides, in the latter the
markings are of a deep yellow, and not white or of a faint yellowish
tinge. The hickory borer always appears in spring, and the locust
borer in the fall, not later than September in this part of the
country. Below or behind the V-shaped band there are three others,
but all broken up into mere dots, and not continuous.
[Illustration: FIG. 71. HICKORY BORER.]
In the South, and especially in Texas, there is a somewhat smaller
but closely allied species (_Cyllene crinicornis_) that attacks the
pecan tree and its wood in the same way as our common hickory borer,
but in the Southern or Southwestern species the bands on the
wing-covers are all interrupted or broken up into small white spots
or dots. I have no remedy to suggest, further than to cut down old,
infested trees, and to haul the wood out into the sun and spread it
out where it will quickly dry and become seasoned. If the felled
tree and wood is stripped of its bark as soon as cut, the female
beetles will not deposit their eggs upon it.
There are other long-horned beetles (_Cerambycidae_) that are
occasionally found breeding in the hickories, and among these may be
named the Belted Chion (_Chion cinctus_), Tiger Goes (_Goes
tigrinus_), Beautiful Goes (_Goes pulchra_), and the Orange Sawyer
(_Elaphidion inerme_), but they are usually quite too rare to be
considered as very destructive insects.
HICKORY-BARK BORER (_Scolytus 4-spinosus._ Say).--Only once within
my memory has this minute but destructive beetle appeared in any
considerable numbers in my neighborhood, although I have
occasionally received a few specimens from correspondents in various
parts of the country, even as far west as the Pacific coast in
Washington. This borer is a very small, cylindrical, dark brown
beetle, about one-fifth of an inch or less in length, and
one-sixteenth in diameter. The hind part of the body is quite blunt
(truncate), the males having four short but distinct blunt spines,
two on each side, projecting from the hind part of the abdomen,
hence the name "4-spinosus." In the females these spines are absent,
otherwise they closely resemble the males. These bark borers usually
appear here in the Northern States the last of June or early in
July, and both sexes attack hickory trees of all species, but appear
to prefer the old and nearly mature trees to the young and small
with thinner bark. After boring through the bark and reaching the
soft cambium layer underneath, upon which these insects feed, the
female cuts a vertical channel in this substance, of little over an
inch in length.
[Illustration: FIG. 72. BURROWS OF HICKORY SCOLYTUS.]
This burrow is a little larger than the diameter of her body, and
along on both sides she deposits her eggs, to the number of ten to
thirty, placing about an equal number on each side. When these eggs
hatch, the young larvae begin to feed on the soft material by which
they are surrounded, making minute burrows at first, and at nearly
right angles with the parent one; but as they increase in size they
are forced to diverge, those above the center working upward, and
those below downward, as shown in Fig. 72. These burrows enlarge as
the grubs increase in size, as shown, most of them reaching their
full development by the time cold weather sets in, but some do not
cease feeding until spring, then pass to the pupal stage, and later
to the perfect or beetle form, and from the extreme end of these
burrows they bore a hole straight out to the surface, and are then
ready to begin the cycle of life again, either on the tree from
which they have emerged, or others near by. Some fifteen years ago I
noticed that the leaves of some of the old hickory trees on my place
were turning yellow prematurely, and upon examination I found the
bark perforated with minute holes not larger than small bird shot,
indicating the presence of the bark borer under consideration. Seven
of the very largest and, presumably, the oldest, appeared to be
affected, and these were immediately cut down and stripped of their
bark, exposing the little grubs to the air and attacks of
insect-eating birds. These trees appeared to have been infested for
several years, as there was scarcely a spot on the surface of the
wood that had not been scarified with this pest. Since the
destruction of these trees I have not been troubled with bark
borers, although there are still a number of very old and large
hickories thriving in the same grove. The only remedy I can suggest
is to cut down infested trees as soon as they are discovered, and
also encourage the insect-eating birds to remain in and near the nut
groves.
There are several other species of bark borers that occasionally
attack hickories, one of these, the _Chramesus icoriae_, Leconte,
infests the small twigs, while another, the _Sinoxylon basilare_,
say, after boring through the bark, continues its course far into
the heartwood, showing a preference for this kind of food instead of
the living tissues. These pests, however, are rarely constant, but
very erratic, in their attacks, and while they may be rather
abundant on a few or many trees a season or two, they then
disappear, and not one may be seen for several decades.
THE HICKORY-SHUCK WORM (_Grapholitha caryana._ Fitch).--The parent
of this pest is a minute moth of the family _Tortricidae_, the small
caterpillars mining and boring the green husks, and sometimes into
the immature shell, causing the nuts to wither and drop off
prematurely, although an occasional one may reach maturity, even in
its scarified condition. This insect appears to be somewhat rare in
the East, but very abundant some years in the West, where it is
frequently destructive to the thick shellbark hickory and pecan. The
first fresh specimens of the Nussbaumer Hybrid pecan nut (referred
to on a preceding page) were so badly bored and scarified by this
worm when received, that they would have been nearly or quite
worthless for either planting or other purposes. As this insect
attacks the nuts on the very largest trees in the forest and
elsewhere, I cannot suggest any other remedy than to gather the
immature and infested nuts as they fall, and burn them, with their
contents.
Among the larger Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) there are many
species, the caterpillars of which occasionally feed on the leaves
of the hickories, but not exclusively; consequently, they cannot be
considered as the special enemies of this genus of trees. When they
do attack them, it is as much due to accident as design. This is
certainly true with the great Luna moth (_Attacus luna_) and the
American silk worm (_Telea polyphemus_), and various species of the
Catocala, as well as the Tent caterpillar (_Clisiocampa sylvatica_).
There is also a hickory-nut weevil, closely allied to the species
infesting the chestnut; and while not quite as large, its habits are
similar, and its ravages may be checked by the same or similar
means. The grubs bore into the green nuts, causing some to fall
before half-grown; others may remain in the nuts until they are ripe
and gathered in the autumn; consequently, perforated hickory nuts
are not at all rare, even on the stands of venders in our cities.
Bud worms, leaf miners, leaf rollers and plant lice,--and among the
latter several gall-making species,--are to be found on the
hickories; but with all these natural enemies to contend with, the
hickories thrive, grow, and yield their fruits in greater or less
abundance. To enumerate, describe and illustrate all the insects
known to be enemies of the hickory would require a large volume, but
fortunately there are many special works published on the insects
injurious to vegetation, and these are readily obtainable by all who
may have occasion to consult their pages.