The next instance of successful hickory grafting and the one which is best known is the work of the late Henry Hales of Ridgewood, N. J. When he purchased his place some fifty years ago, he found on it a fine shagbark hickory tree. This had been standing longer than the oldest inhabitant could remember and it is supposed to have been one of the original forest trees of that section and spared on account of the excellent nuts it bore. It came to the attention of the late Andrew S. Fuller, author of the "Nut Culturist" published in 1896, and was described by him in 1870 in the Rural New Yorker. Shortly after this description, Mr. Hales received many requests for scions to which he generously responded and any propagator who thought he could propagate this hickory was given a chance to try, the conditions being that one-half of the successfully grafted trees should belong to Mr. Hales in payment for the scions sent. During the next ten years orders for scions were so numerous that the old tree was kept pretty well pruned. Mr. Hales received during the period only about two dozen trees from the thousands of scions which he sent out. According to Fuller's "Nut Culturist" these were largely grafted by Mr. J. R. Trumpey of Flushing, N. Y., now a part of New York City. Information which I received at the Hales place was that the trees growing there were grafted by Jackson Dawson of the Arnold Arboretum about 1891. Inasmuch as there appear to be trees of two different ages there it is probable that some trees were from one propagator and some from the other. The trees grafted by Jackson Dawson we know were on bitternut root and it seems likely that the others were also for one tree is not like the others and I was informed that that was a grafted tree, but the graft died and a shoot came out at the base of the graft which was thought to be from the graft but, after the tree had grown it became evident that it was not. The buds of this tree show evidence of the bitternut. The nuts, however are not pure bitternut and the tree is seemingly a bitternut x shagbark hybrid. All of the trees grafted by Jackson Dawson were bench grafted in the greenhouse on especially grown stocks. I have two trees on my place from Thomas Meehan & Sons, Germantown, Pa., propagated in the same way and, when received, the long tap roots were coiled up like springs showing that the trees had been grown in pots. These trees, however, have grown well since I planted them out though they were very small and feeble when set out. These grafted Hales trees at the Hales place bore nuts in eighteen to twenty years after grafting. They bore for about five years and then ceased bearing. I went to see them for the reason that I was informed by Miss Hales that the trees were not looking satisfactorily and she was afraid there was some disease on them. I requested the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture to allow Mr. S. M. McMurran, who has made a study of pecan rosette, to come and look at the trees for it seemed to me that they were similarly affected. He took specimens of the leaves and reported that he could find no evidence of insect or fungus trouble. He also made a careful examination of the soil, and the farm was gone over carefully looking at the pecan and hickory trees growing there of which there are a large number. Most of these did not seem to be in good condition although a few did. Tests made of the soil seemed to show that it was not the kind of soil in which hickories and pecans do their best. It was also ascertained that while Mr. Hales senior was living the trees had received an application of manure every year. Since his death they have not. This, in connection with the poorness of the soil for hickories, seems possible may be the reason for the cessation of bearing. It also seems likely that bitternut root is not a good stock for the shagbark. I have on my place two grafted Cedarapids trees, each of which when received was four years from the graft and four feet in height above the graft. One was on bitternut stock and one on shagbark. The one on shagbark stock had made about six inches the first year, a foot the second year, a foot and a half the third and two feet the fourth while in the case of the one on bitternut root the growths were reversed, two feet the first, a foot and a half the second year, a foot the third year and six inches the fourth year. Mr. Jones has also had the experience of grafting the Vest hickory on the bitternut, had it bear in two years, and then die. While the evidence we have on this subject is not conclusive as there may have been other factors which might have caused the trouble outside of the stock, it shows that the stock on which the different hickories are to be grafted is a matter of importance. Mr. Henry Hicks of Westbury, L. I., who a number of years ago became enthusiastic on the Hales hickory, has four grafted trees or those which he purchased for grafted on his place. One he has had twenty-seven years and it has not borne. It has been twice transplanted. He has two or three others which have not yet borne. Inasmuch as the buds of these trees are not all alike, it is very evident that they cannot all nave been grafted from the original Hales tree. The finest looking Hales hickory of which I know is on the place of Frederick E. Willets, Glen Cove, L. I. Mr. Willets could not tell me how many years it had been set out but it was quite a good many. It bears a few nuts but the tree has been disappointing in its performance. I examined it during the past summer and the nuts, of which there were not many on the tree, were dropping off. It was evident that some insect was attacking the husks which may account for the rather unsatisfactory bearing record.
In distinction from this rather unsatisfactory record of Hales trees we have great promise of something worth while in the only other bearing grafted transplanted hickory of which I can give information, Mr. Rush's Weiker tree. This was produced by. Mr. J. F. Jones when he was living in Monticello, Fla. A southern pecan nut was planted in 1902. It was root-grafted below the surface of the ground in 1903, sent to Mr. Rush in the spring of 1904 and planted out at that time. Mr. Jones says that the tree was not over eight inches high when sent. It bore its first nuts in 1917 and has borne a few every year since. This year the tree set full and had a good crop when I saw it last. The nuts borne by this tree are considerably larger than those of the parent Weiker tree. Inasmuch as the original Weiker tree has given us our best hickory bearing record, it seems not unlikely that this grafted Weiker tree may also be an unusually good bearer.
Against this slow record of grafted transplanted hickory trees, we have some remarkably quick results with top worked hickory trees. Mr. Jones has a bitternut tree now about five inches in diameter which was top worked in the Spring of 1916 to Fairbanks variety, ten grafts being put in, two of which blew out that summer or fall and were replaced the next spring. In 1919 all the grafts, the two year ones as well as the three year ones bore nuts, about 120 maturing. The tree set full of nuts in 1920, but caterpillers got on it, unnoted, and practically the entire crop dropped off. Mr. Jones also has a smaller bitternut tree top worked at the same time to Siers. It bore two nuts in 1919. He also has a mockernut tree top worked at the same time with Kirtland and which set some nuts in 1919 but which dropped off before maturity. It set quite a number in 1920. Mr. D. C. Snyder, Center Point, Iowa, has a shagbark hickory some twenty-five or thirty years old which was top worked shortly after it had begun to bear. In 1913 the four top limbs were top worked to Fairbanks hickory, the rest of the tree being undisturbed. In 1915 these grafts bore nuts and have borne every year since. In 1919 they bore two quarts. Inasmuch as this was a year when the hickory crop in that section was a failure it was thought to speak well for the bearing of the Fairbanks hickory. In 1916 four grafts of Dennis hickory were put in and three of Cedar Rapids. The Dennis grafts bore four nuts in 1918 and over a dozen in 1919. The Cedarapids bore one dozen in 1919 besides a number more which a squirrel got before Mr. Snyder did. Mr. William A. Baker of Wolcott, N. Y., top worked a bitternut tree to Fairbanks in 1917 and the tree bore ten nuts in 1919. Mr. Harvey Losee, Upper Red Hook, N. Y., grafted the young shoots of cut back hickories and out of three shoots so grafted had them bear in three, four and five years respectively. Dr. Morris has grafted a Taylor hickory on a small tree which bore five years after grafting. Dr. Deming on his place at Georgetown, Conn., has probably a greater collection of top worked hickories of various varieties than anybody else. These trees are growing finely and give promise of bearing early. A Taylor hickory on stock 1¼" diameter grafted, April 26, 1918 had ten nuts on it on June 27, 1920. A Griffin hickory grafted in 1915 which is now 2½" in diameter had 81 nuts on it on the same date. There seems to be no question but that anyone who has land with hickory trees one to four inches in diameter can easily and quickly change them into orchards of hickories bearing fine nuts by top working.
We next come to the relative merit of the various hickories of which we know. I was fortunate in securing for the 1919 contest enough specimens of the greater portion of those hickories which have been propagated experimentally to a considerable extent so that some information on this point can be given. The printed slip which I will pass around gives the results of these tests and will give a better idea of the different nuts than can be done in any way except by passing around samples. It will be noted from the slip that the nuts run very close indeed and it is very probable that another year these nuts would not show exactly the same results for it has been clearly shown that nuts vary greatly from year to year. There are other characteristics of hickory nuts which are of great importance which are not shown in the annual contests. These are the bearing records of the tree, its ability to stand various diseases and most of all how it will work out when grown in orchard form. This can only be told by experience. From the fact that, in the 1919 contest, of the ten varieties of the experimentally propagated hickories there was only a difference of five points between the highest and the lowest, it shows that the merit of each nut is sufficient so that all of these should be tested out in orchard form. In other words we should not for example select the Vest and Manahan as the best that we have and propagate them to the exclusion of the others. It is probable that there will be great differences in the orchard behavior of these various hickories shown as this is done and that then we shall be able to select the most desirable varieties. Some tests made recently on nine standard southern pecans the Schley, Burkett, Moore, Alley, Delmas, Moneymaker, Pabst, Stuart and Vandeman show a great difference between the highest and lowest in the number of points awarded, this difference being 10 points as against 5 in the cast of the hickories. The Hatch bitternut and Stanley shellbark noted on this slip are here not because it is believed that, as market nuts, they will compare with the first ten mentioned but because they are the best nuts we now have which are not shagbarks or of which the shagbark is not one parent. It is believed that those nuts will be valuable for hybridizing purposes.
There is one matter suggested by the slip on which I will touch although it is not properly within the scope of the subject set for this paper and that is the possibilities of hickory breeding. Of the ten hickories noted on the slip as receiving 70 to 75 points, four, it is agreed, are hybrids. The examination which I have made of the others leads me to believe that more of them are, but four out of ten with the possibility of more is sufficient to cause us to take notice. There are some nine hickory species native in the north eastern United States and they hybridize to a considerable extent. Some of these species show most remarkable differences in characteristics. The shagbark is unexcelled for quality of kernel. The shellbark bears nuts as large as the largest black walnut. The bitternut bears nuts with a thinner shell than any of the finest southern pecans and with a larger proportion of kernel. What we know about practical plant hybridization leads us to believe that we can combine the good qualities of these various species of hickories. Think of what it would mean to have hickories equal in quality of kernel to the best shagbark, of the size of the largest black walnut with a shell thinner than the thinnest shelled pecan we have even seen, and with a larger proportion of kernel.
While the hickory is the nut which has given as the most trouble in propagation and gives us the most trouble in transplanting and grows the slowest, it is certainly difficult to find one which gives more promise either in growing the fine hickories we now have or in breeding up better ones. I am convinced that as soon as we can furnish the fine hickories we now have in commercial quantities they will command prices equal to those paid for the finest pecans.
The President: I will call upon Mr. J. F. Jones, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who has the subject of "Selecting and Handling Scions."