A budded chestnut tree is much superior to a grafted one as far as the union is concerned. Grafted trees usually do not knit well the first season while at two years the union is good. So we also must learn our chestnut propagation all over again.
I have a letter before me from Brother Borst asking why his walnut buds took so well and not one of them vegetated in spring. This happened to us a number of times on both walnuts and hickories. Also, in the same season, we have had one or two varieties, of which we did not set many buds or grafts, to show 100% catches, while other varieties set the same day would be 100% failure. Apparently all scions used were in prime condition. Why then this great variance? While we used the double-bladed knife for budding and the side graft for grafting, other methods are just as successful under skilled hands. The skill of the operator has much to do with it.
Fall budding of persimmons. The persimmon has only about ten days in which it will fall bud. Before or after this period budding will not succeed. It also is important that the scions be taken from thrifty trees a number of years old. The ordinary "T" shield budding gives good success on the persimmon either spring or fall. The spring bud sticks should be perfectly dormant.
Butternut and Japanese Walnuts and Their Hybrids
None of these are worth the space they occupy in this locality. 1-18 on which I reported last year didn't set a nut this season. Of all the heartnuts I am acquainted with none are satisfactory. There is a siebold tree in St. Louis that so far we have been unable to graft that promises to be adapted to this vicinity. It is good bearer, good cracker and pleasant flavor. This class of nuts is adopted to the north where the pecan is unsatisfactory.
The Hicans and Hickories
The hicans are numerous in this and adjacent counties. While a number of them are good, I have located none that can compare favorably with Bixby, Gerardi, and Pleas for this locality. The Pleas is a bitternut hybrid and has some bitterness in the kernel, but no more than the English walnut and people like it. Of the twenty hicans we have tried the above three only are satisfactory.
In this latitude the hicans are unquestionably the most satisfactory nut trees to plant. They grow fast, bear young, have a high flavor, crack well and are unsurpassed as shade or lawn trees. Here the Gerardi and Bixby are the best so far fruited. The Pleas is very ornamental but lacks flavor. The Burlington and Fairbanks are adapted to the north but here are not satisfactory bearers.
I have reports on about 25 Gerardi hican seedlings. They are all worthless, smaller in nut than either pecans or hickories. The peculiar thing is that some of the pecans are decidedly bitter in flavor as also are some of the hickories. Two of the seedlings show shellbark blood.
Handling the nut weevil and plum curculio. Two years ago the few nuts the Gerardi hican had were all wormy. Last spring I cultivated the ground with a one-horse cultivator and gave our chickens free access to the feast. They made so good a job of it that not a single nut was stung this season. Where the ground can be flooded for several days this will also exterminate the weevil. The same treatment applies to plum curculio. Cultivation should be done before growth starts in spring, or quite late in fall.