MR. O'ROURKE: That is a question pertaining to culture, rather than propagation, but we can still allow it. Which varieties—I presume you mean species, is that correct?—will grow on fairly wet soil? I think Mr. Ward has a little bit of black soil in that good, old state of Indiana.
MR. SALZER: I mean soil that doesn't dry well in the spring. I have one spot that's too wet for chestnuts.
MR. WARD: I wouldn't put any hickory nuts on it. You are going to find it is going to be very difficult for if the soil is the least bit heavy or wet, the hickory nut does not do well at all. In the Wabash bottoms there is a lot of this black soil that is overflowed every year, and some of the finest hickory nuts and some of the finest pecans that you can find in the country are there. Sometimes I have seen water marks on those hickory trees several feet from the ground in the spring of the year and sometimes in the summer, yet they come through with a good crop of nuts. Underneath it is a strata of gravel so that the soil drains out in a hurry.
MR. SALZER: This has subsoil drainage.
MR. WARD: The soil around Rochester is very heavy like what we call slashland type of soil here in Indiana, and where this occurs we find that the hickory nut does very, very poorly. I wouldn't advise putting them on such soils. The black walnut will grow a lot better in places like that.
MR. GERARDI: In Illinois we have that deep, black soil and we just call it plain gumbo. It's all filled-in soil, and I never have reached the bottom. It's at least 20 feet thick. And these swamp hickories—I think Reed was the one that called them swamp hickories—thrive there. They can be two months under water six foot deep, and still bear wonderful crops. You can get a wagon load of them in that mucky soil.
MR. CALDWELL: The hickory in New York State which will stand the most moist conditions is the bitternut hickory, and with that root stock you may be able to get some of the others through. The shagbark will withstand considerable moisture if it has deep soil. The bitternut does well on shallow soil or the soil that is made shallow by high water.
MR. O'ROURKE: The bitternut, then, will survive wet conditions. This is of interest as far as root stocks are concerned. I am wondering if anyone would like to report on the ability of the pecan to take wet soil conditions.
MR. WILKINSON: They will turn out all right if they have dry feet during the summer months, but they will not stand wet feet all summer.
MR. O'ROURKE: Will the bitternut do better, or would the mockernut?