Perhaps the most interesting part of new tree work relates to experiments which are failures. Negative testimony is like the minor key in music. There are many men who care to do only things that "cannot be done." These are the ones who have made our progress in almost every field of human activity.
STOCKS FOR HICKORIES
Willard G. Bixby, Long Island
MR. BIXBY: The sheets which I am distributing to you contain tables to which I shall refer during this talk. But first I will give a little foreword regarding the trees. The trees enumerated in the tables shown were nearly all given me by Mr. Henry Hicks of Isaac Hicks & Son, Westbury, Long Island, and were taken to Baldwin and set out in the fall, practically the entire roots being saved and later the trees severely cut back. They were transplanted without loss except in the case of the shagbark, and those lost were all undersized trees. All of the hickories were of one age, but those lost were ones which had not made normal growth and had they been discarded in the beginning there would have been no loss whatever in the transplanting of 300 or 400 trees. Later, in the spring of 1924, I found some loose bark pignut (Carya ovalis) seedlings on a farm not far away from my place, and these were also transplanted; but they were too small to graft this year. These experiments in grafting, made during 1923 and 1924, have shown us some new things. With some of the walnuts we had 100 per cent success. With the hickories there was not 100 per cent success, but that was due to the fact that we were putting scions on stocks that were not congenial in many instances. You will notice the results as shown on the tables.
1923 GRAFTING
G—Grafts Set C—Successful Catches
—————————————————————————————————————————
Shagbark Mockernut Pignut Pecan Bitternut Total
G C G C G C G C G C G C %
Barnes 6 6 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 18 18 100.0%
Brooks 5 0 4 2 5 1 5 2 19 5 21.0%
Clark 5 1 5 0 5 2 5 1 5 2 25 6 24.0%
Fairbanks 27 17 27 17 59.3%
Gobble 1 O 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 4 80.0%
Griffin 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 5 3 60.0%
Hales 5 3 4 1 5 4 5 5 19 13 52.5%
Kentucky 5 4 3 1 5 4 5 4 5 1 23 14 61.0%
Kirtland 3 1 3 2 3 2 3 2 12 7 58.4%
Laney 6 4 6 4 66.7%
Long Beach 4 3 3 2 4 1 4 2 3 1 18 9 50.0%
Manahan 5 1 5 1 6 2 5 1 5 1 26 6 24.2%
Siers 5 5 5 5 100.0%
Stanley 3 3 3 2 3 3 9 8 89.0%
Taylor 4 3 3 3 4 3 4 3 15 12 80.0%
Vest 5 1 5 0 5 1 5 2 5 1 25 5 20.0%
Weiker 5 1 5 2 5 1 15 4 26.8%
— — — — — — — — — — —- —-
32 17 51 20 52 26 46 24 91 53 272 140
53.1% 29.2% 50.0% 47.0% 59.3% 51.5%
An inspection of the 1923 grafts made August 21, 1924 showed the following number growing: on shagbark 14, on mockernut 6, on pignut 26, on pecan 24, and on bitternut 16, the only place where there was any material difference being in the case of the mockernut where nearly three-quarters of the number of grafts growing last summer failed to grow this spring, in fact all varieties failed to grow excepting three, the Barnes, Gobble and Long Beach, all three of which I suspect from other evidence, have mockernut parentage. In the ease of those on pignut and pecan stocks there was no loss from 1923 and in some instances at least of those on shagbark and bitternut stocks the loss was due to outside causes, such as being broken off.
1924 GRAFTING
G—Grafts Set C—Successful Catches
————————————————————————————————————————
Shagbark Mockernut Pignut Pecan Bitternut Total
G C G C G C G C G C G C %
Barnes 8 7 10 4 18 11 61.0%
Beaver 5 1 5 1 20.0%
Brooks 11 8 10 5 21 13 61.9%
Clark 6 0 8 0 5 0 5 1 24 1 4.6%
Fairbanks 5 3 5 3 60.0%
Greenbay 5 0 5 0 0.0%
Hales 5 1 5 1 20.0%
Kentucky 5 2 4 2 9 4 44.5%
Kirtland 5 5 4 3 9 8 88.8%
Laney 5 3 5 2 10 5 50.0%
Manahan 6 2 6 2 33.3%
Mosnat No. 5. 7 1 7 1 14.7%
Mosnat No. 6. 10 6 10 6 60.0%
Siers 5 4 5 4 80.0%
Stanley 12 1 12 1 8.3%
Vest 10 3 15 5 16 5 10 3 12 3 63 19 34.2%
Weiker 5 3 5 3 60.0%
— — —- — — — — — — — —- —
16 3 122 52 54 21 15 4 12 3 219 83
18.7% 42.6% 38.9% 26.7% 25.0% 37.9%
In 1923, it was very evident that the Barnes was the only variety showing 100 per cent success on every stock. That was not repeated in 1924, but it still showed a high percentage of success.