Mr. Littlepage: While it is true they may mature staminate and pistillate blossoms, the question arises whether or not the growing season is going to be long enough at the end to mature the nuts. I notice in going through wild groves in Indiana, once in a while you have a tree which never matures any nuts, though it has bountiful crops. The frost gets them.
Professor Craig: There is evidently a lack of summer heat to ripen fruit. Before we get quite away from this subject, I would like to ask Mr. Roper if he has noticed any striking differences in the hardiness of Stuart and other northern forms of the pecan in his particular locality. Does Stuart maintain its reputation for hardiness in his locality? We are interested in that question from the northern standpoint.
Mr. Roper (Virginia): I think it does, but that is discussed in a paper which I shall read some time here in the meeting. Both the Stuart and Moneymaker have done better with us than any other of the southern varieties when they are budded on hardy stocks. The grafted trees do not do well with us.
President Morris: Professor Lake, will you speak on any of these points?
Professor Lake: I am learning much and prefer to continue a learner. I shouldn't know anything about this crossing, except in the case of the Juglans regia and the oaks of California. That is one case that was not mentioned. We have a remarkable hybrid between the native oaks and the Persian walnut. It is remarkable in many ways. It has foliage that is perhaps half way between the oak and the walnut, and the nut on the surface looks like a small walnut, and on the inside it is between a walnut and an acorn. I had an opportunity to sample the flesh, but it is not edible yet. They are interested in the work very much, especially at Chico and the Southern California Station.
President Morris: It is said to be a cross between the live oak and the walnut. It seems absolutely impossible, but I have seen the nuts, and a photograph of the tree.
Mr. Reed: We haven't devoted a great deal of attention to the hybridization of nuts in our Department work. There is one thing that occurred to me, as I sat here, merely of passing interest. A gentleman in Mississippi sent a specimen of foliage, together with berries, from what he said was a hybrid between the pecan and the China berry; and he had the evidence, because the parent pecan tree stood right there, and the China berry was the other parent tree! He wanted world wide attention called to that. They were taken to the botanist, and he recognized them as one of the ordinary soap berries. There was a similar case this fall. A gentleman in Texas exhibited some nuts at the State Fair at Dallas that he said were a hybrid between the mocker-nut, the common hickory there in Texas, and the pecan. He said that the parent trees stood near one another and that the pecan blossomed some years about the same time that the hickory did, and in those years the hickory nut was long, and in other years it was short. Somebody sent one of the nuts to Mr. Taylor, Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry. He sent the nut on to me, and I looked it up. I struck Texas on one of those cold wave days, and drove five miles out and back in a Texas livery rig, and found an ordinary hickory that bore nuts just a little different from others. That is one way the Department is called upon to ferret these things out.
Mr. Littlepage: I would like to ask Mr. Reed what information he has as to the success of pecans bearing when grafted or budded on other varieties of hickory? I say that because I know from traveling around through the country that there is a widespread impression that it is possible to have very extensive pecan orchards throughout the North by topworking the wild hickory. I have had some little experience along that line, but I don't know what the facts are; and Mr. Reed has made an extensive trip recently for the Department of Agriculture, collecting data in reference to the pecan.
Mr. Reed: The present situation, so far as we have been able to gather the information, is just this. The pecan has been grafted on a good many species of hickory, all the way from Virginia south to Florida, and west to Texas; but rarely ever can we find an instance in which they have produced satisfactorily after they have come to a bearing stage. We find that they unite readily ordinarily, and grow rapidly; but the pecan eventually proves to be a more rapid grower than the hickory, and when it catches up and is the same diameter, then the pecan growth is slower, and while they bear a little the first few years, later on they are not productive. I don't wish to say that is final, but it has been the experience so far. You will find most enthusiastic advocates of pecan on hickory where it hasn't been tried for any length of time. The men who try it find it unites readily and makes this quick growth, and think the question is solved. But aside from a few instances in Texas, I don't find very encouraging reports. It may be due largely to the fact that the right varieties of pecan haven't been used. We know that in the early history of pecan culture the Rome and Centennial and some others that are light bearers were used; and then the pecan on hickory has been looked at as so much saved, and they haven't been given much attention. It is still very much a matter of doubt, but is not in a very favorable light at present.
Professor Craig: I would like to ask Mr. Reed if he has looked over Mr. Ramsey's work recently at Austin, Texas.