"The anthers of type two are normal in appearance, but the pollen-mother-cells degenerate before pollen grains are formed. A comparison of the degenerate pollen-mother-cells of this plant with normal pollen-mother-cells is given below:"
Illustrations by Dr. McKay showing pollen degeneration in Weschcke hickory.
This substantiates the conclusion that I had arrived at previous to this report, that this hickory is able to mature its nuts early in the fall by reason of not having to waste its energy in the production of pollen. (There is only one other variety of hickory which I have grafted on bitternut which has proved unable to mature pollen and it is the Creager from Iowa.) I was immensely pleased to find that it responded very well to Bridgewater pollen, a high percentage of the blooms treated with it developing mature nuts. The results with the Kirtland pollen were almost equally good, the poorest showing coming from those branches treated with Beaver pollen on which only three mature nuts developed. (The Beaver is presumed to be a hybrid between bitternut and shagbark hickories.) Sixty-two nuts from these pollinizations were planted in the fall of 1941 in rodent-proof seed beds. In the spring, counting germination, I found 100% of these nuts had sprouted and grown into small trees during the season.
After finding the most suitable pollen for the Weschcke hickory, I realized the necessity for including more than one variety of hickory in a planting, just as there should be more than one variety of apple or plum tree in an orchard. I think that it would always be well to have three or more varieties of known compatibility within reasonable distances, probably not more than 100 feet apart, nor less than 40 to 50 feet for large hickories.
Of the many varieties of hickory and hickory hybrids I have tested, about twenty have, by now, proved to be sufficiently hardy to recommend for this latitude. These include:
| *Beaver | hybrid hickory |
| *Fairbanks | hybrid hickory |
| *Laney | hybrid hickory |
| Burlington Rockville | hybrid between pecan and shellbark hickory |
| Hope pecan | pure pecan grafted on to bitternut roots |
| Hand | pure shagbark |
| *Bridgewater | pure shagbark |
| Barnes | hybrid hickory |
| *Cedar Rapids | pure shagbark |
| *Weschcke | pure shagbark |
| *Deveaux | pure shagbark |
| *Brill | pure shagbark |
| *Glover | pure shagbark |
| *Kirtland | pure shagbark |
| *Siers | thought to be a hybrid between the mocker nut and bitternut |
| *Stratford hybrid | (bitternut by shagbark) |
| *Creager |
*Have produced mature nuts
There are three or four others that are hardy but all means of identification having been lost, it will be necessary to wait until they come into bearing before their varieties will be known. As experiments continue, more varieties of worthy, hardy hickories and hiccans will be found which will justify completely the opinion of those of us who always hail as king of all our native nuts, the hickory.
