Professor Craig: They usually bear heavily where the food supply is restricted.
Mr. Reed: That would make our pecans bear more heavily on hickory stock than on their own.
Professor Craig: As a matter of theory, they ought to. The bearing ought to be increased, because it is a system of girdling, or brings about the same effect,—in other words it restricts the return flow of the elaborated food. The food is checked at the point of union. Another parallel is in the case of Prunus domestica, the European plum, when worked on Prunus Americana, the American plum. In that case, the top always outgrows the stock, and in ten years it presents a very curious appearance. It presents the appearance of a very top-heavy head on a very spindling stem. The bearing is usually encouraged, but the fruit is usually small. The amount of fruit measured by numbers is increased, but the amount of fruit measured by the size of individual specimens is decreased.
Mr. Collins: Isn't the size of the fruit increased in the case of apples?
Professor Craig: By topworking, usually, it is, but that doesn't contemplate such an extreme case as that. It means when the union is reasonably uniform, when there is a reasonable affinity between stock and scion. But in extreme cases we get the opposite result. Reproduction is encouraged, but size of fruit is checked.
President Morris: I would like to hear from Mr. Rush or Mr. Pomeroy in connection with the hickory.
Mr. Pomeroy: I haven't ever tried any experiments with the hickory.
President Morris: We will discuss further some of the points that have been suggested in this paper, because it seems to me we are along a good line of cleavage, and this line of cleavage may dispose of some questions that we haven't discussed. One question brought up was if the bitter, astringent qualities are likely to be recessive among hybrids in the trees which have bitter nuts.
Mr. Littlepage: I made a trip through Missouri and Arkansas a year ago, and while there, took occasion to go into the forests, and investigate to some extent the Arkansas and Missouri hickory and pecan. Among other things, I found two hybrids, one of the pecan and one of the pignut, one of which was bitter and inedible, the other a fairly good nut. I have both of them with me here today. One of them was very astringent and bitter, the other had taken more the quality of the pecan as to meat, and was a fairly good substitute. I don't know what the reason for it is, that one is fit to eat, and the other isn't, when they are both hybrids between the pignut and the pecan.
Doctor Deming: How did you know they were hybrids, by the appearance?