WILCOX is the outstanding variety of hickory of those which have borne
in our test orchard, so far. This originated near Geneva, Ohio. It. won
second prize in the Ohio contest of 1934. It appears to be a consistent,
alternate bearer. The nut is only medium in size for a shagbark, about
90 to the pound. It cracks almost perfectly, yielding about 38% kernel,
mostly in whole halves. Color of kernel bright and of very good flavor.
MINNIE has also appeared very good. It is a trifle larger than Wilcox,
being 85 to the pound. It cracks excellently and is of good quality. But
so far it has not yielded as well as has Wilcox.
DAVIS has shown up quite well. Our oldest graft is on a bitternut stock;
it has borne well but the nuts have not cracked as well as those from
the original tree or the ones grown at Cornell. In size the nut is
between Minnie and Wilcox, kernel bright, plump and of good quality.
FOX has been rather disappointing as produced on grafts so far. Not that
it is a poor nut, in fact it is a good nut, but because it has fallen so
far short of what was expected of it. Fox is the mystery variety of the
hickories. How it could unanimously win first prize in the Northern Nut
Growers Association contest of 1934, with a sample of nuts so excellent
in every way and then for the grafts to bear only fair nuts, is a
mystery. Some have advanced the idea of bud variation in the parent
tree. To prove or disprove this, I made a trip to the original tree in
the spring of 1943 and gathered grafting wood from various parts of the
tree. This wood was grafted on various stocks in our test orchard, so
that we now have living grafts from 13 different parts of the original
tree. If there is a bud variation, we should certainly have some of the
good ones and are anxiously waiting the time when these grafts begin to
bear. To lend a little credence to the bud variation theory, I found
that at some time in the past the Fox tree had been broken off in a
storm and had since formed a new top, largely from a single leader. Mr.
Fox stated that he had naturally taken wood from the lower portions of
the tree as it was much easier to do so. (The late Dr. Zimmerman made a
similar study of this tree and its nuts from different branches. He was
firmly convinced that there were differences.--Ed.)