Mr. Reed: I was at Mr. Ramsey's last year, and I don't recall that that matter came up at all.
Professor Craig: Didn't you see his plantation of top worked hickories?
Mr. Reed: I didn't know he had topworked hickories. He has topworked pecans. Professor Kyle of the Station in Texas has recently issued a bulletin on that very thing, and he cites a number of cases in which he concludes that there will be a favorable outcome; but for some reason, in the instances which he cites, the trees haven't borne very much. They attribute it this season in one instance to the fact that they had a storm at pollinating time, and last year some other accident happened that prevented them from maturing after a quantity of nuts had set.
Mr. Littlepage: I mention this at this time because I want to get Mr. Reed's testimony in the record, because I think that every prospective nut grower must go through this stage. A year ago I undertook on my farm in Indiana to bud the pecan into other varieties of hickory—I have a great many wild hickories growing all over my farm,—shagbark, shellbark, and different varieties of those even. So I went to work and budded perhaps one hundred of those trees, and for a while it seemed that there was going to be a great degree of success. I budded them all upon the limbs where the bark was thinner, and tied the bud in with waxed cloth very tightly; and by absorption the majority of the buds lived a week or ten days. After that, there was perhaps a third of them alive. For the next two weeks, we could find an occasional bud that remained green, and then the number became so very small that I gave up the idea that any would live. But this spring I found a few of these had started to grow, but I had tied them so very tightly that in some instances where there had been a growth of an inch or two, the bud part had been cut in two. Then I undertook it on a much smaller scale. I cut back eight or ten small hickory trees three to four inches in diameter, let them throw up water sprouts, and budded into these. The bud wood I used stuck very tight, and I examined the buds in November, and there were quite a number alive of the Greenriver and Huntington varieties of pecan. Whether they will grow finally remains to be seen.
(A discussion then occurred as to holding the afternoon session and it was decided to continue the business during the afternoon, instead of visiting the Campus.)
President Morris: I would like to comment on one point made by Mr. Littlepage. He has given us perhaps the reason why pecans die back when grafted upon other stocks. Mr. Reed, that is an extremely important point. He has shown that the pecan grows so much more rapidly than other hickories that when it has arrived at a proportion to be supported by the root of the other hickory, it then ceases bearing because all the energy is required for maintaining this new pecan top that tries to grow faster than the hickory, if that is my understanding of this point.
May we not graft freely back and forth hickories of kinds which have about the same rate of growth, and may we not graft other kinds of hickories upon pecan stock, for we don't care how much nourishment is given to a fine young shagbark?
Mr. Littlepage: That is a fine point.
President Morris: I am very glad Mr. Reed brought up that point. It is going to save thousands of dollars if it is a fact recognized in time, because many would go to putting pecans upon other hickories. We may learn that certain kinds of hickories can be grafted to advantage upon other stock, however.
Mr. Reed: There is another point right there I would like to have your views on, and that is, the smaller the hickory is at the time the pecan is grafted on it, the greater will be the influence of the pecan on the hickory.