Mr. Littlepage: Yes, the appearance is unmistakable. The pignut characteristics are very prominent, also the pecan characteristics.
President Morris: Have the members anything to say about the Stringfellow method of transplanting hickories?
Doctor Deming: I have had very little experience in transplanting hickories, but I set out two Hales hickories I got from Meehan, and they are both living, although they have made little growth in some three years. Can you tell us what stocks the Hales hickory is grafted upon?
Mr. Brown (Pennsylvania): Upon the bitternut. All there are have been upon the bitternut from the start.
Doctor Deming: Mr. Littlepage, what do you think of the future of topworking our seedling hickories in the North with improved varieties of hickory or pecan,—the commercial future?
Mr. Littlepage: It is largely speculative. I suppose it is the province of every nut enthusiast to have an opinion about these things. In fact, I find it is encouraging to talk to the fellow who has an opinion. My notion is that there is a great future for topworking the various varieties of the hickory in the North to the desirable forms of the hickory, that is, of the hickory other than the Hicoria pecan. On my farm I expect next year to devote some time to topworking the various hickories I have to the desirable varieties of the shagbark. I think that can be done throughout the whole country. The shagbark seems to be indigenous to such extensive latitudes, that it seems to me there are great possibilities along that line. I observe that around here we find many of those trees. I have some very beautiful shagbarks that came from Canada. My opinion is that it will be successful. I think the reason the pecan has not proved very satisfactory upon the other species of hickory is that most of those hickories have a close grained wood, and that the distribution of available food depends largely upon the amount of sap. The Hicoria pecan is a much coarser grained wood. The flow of the sap upward is facilitated much more than the flow of the sap upward through the hickory stock of other varieties. I believe that is the reason the theoretical rule would probably not work in this case, simply because the distribution of sap cannot take place fast enough through the tight, close grained stock of other varieties of hickory. Otherwise, I don't see why the rule would not obtain, as with fruits. The experiences Mr. Reed gives, I think, are generally recognized by those who have experimented with them to any extent. I noticed in visiting Mr. Roper's nursery he had one very beautiful specimen of the pecan grafted on a hickory. That was the Stuart, was it not?
Mr. Roper: The Moneymaker. It had made a growth of four or five feet in two years.
Mr. Littlepage: Do you know the variety of hickory that it was topworked to?
Mr. Roper: Just our common hickory, I suppose the pignut.
Mr. Littlepage: It made beautiful growth from the wood standpoint.