Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Second Annual Meeting | Page 9

we must not forget the common field mouse, and the pine mouse, which burrow beneath the surface of the ground, and in winter feed freely upon the bark of the roots of the hickories. They have destroyed many thousands of young hickories of various kinds in my nursery, and in digging up roots of old hickories for experimental root grafting I find that mice have been living freely for years upon the bark of some roots.
RANDOM NOTES
Aside from the facts which have been grouped together in this paper, certain notes may be of interest, as introducing questions for speculation.
Are we likely to find more species among the hickories than the ones already described? If so well described a species as the H. Buckleyi has almost escaped observation, and if H. Mexicana is confined, as it seems to be, to a very limited area, and if most of the hickories grow in regions where few botanists are at work, it seems to me probable that several species remain as yet undiscovered. These are likely to be species which lack means of defence, and which are restricted to certain small areas. If we make a parallel with other observations of recent discoveries, one thinks, for instance, in Ichthyology of the Marston's trout, the Sunapee sabling, Ausable greyling, and the Kern River trout, confined almost to a certain stream or lake, and remaining undiscovered for years by naturalists, although familiar to thousands of local fishermen.
Sometimes there is a very apparent reason for the check to distribution of a species. The men whom I employed to go into the mountains of Alvarez for the Mexican hickory tell me that the trees are so loaded down with mistletoe that they rarely bear a crop, and there are few nuts with well developed kernels to be found.
Distribution of a powerful species of hickory, like the pecan, seems to be limited in the North by incomplete development of the pistillate flowers. These are borne on the ends of the herbaceous shoots of the year, and the pecan has such a long growing season that in the North the pistillate buds, which are last developed, are exposed to winter killing. Southern limitation of hickories which have a very short growing period, like the shagbark, may be due to the fact that after a period of summer rest, new growth begins in the autumn rains, and this new growth may not lignify for winter rest.
By artificial selection we can extend the range of all hickories far beyond their indigenous range, which is limited by natural checks. Extension of range, adaptation to various soils, and changes in the character of the nut are likely to occur from grafting hickories upon different stocks of the family. Thus we can graft a shagbark, which does not thrive in poor sandy soil, upon the mocker-nut, which does grow in such soils. Some varieties of the species may grow freely far out of their natural range if they are simply transplanted. For instance, the Stuart pecan, which comes from the very shores of the Gulf of Mexico, is one of the hardiest pecans at the latitude of New York. I don't know about its northern fruiting as yet.
If the Satsuma orange grafted upon trifoliate orange stock gives a heavy, well flavored fruit, while the same variety grafted upon sweet orange stock gives a spongy fruit of little value, we may assume that similar changes in character of fruit will follow nut grafting. Perhaps the astringent feature of the pecan nut will be found to disappear when the pecan has been grafted upon certain other hickories. Sometimes undesirable results are obtained from such grafting; for instance, the pecan grafted upon water hickory stock has been found to grow freely for four or five years, and then to die back unaccountably.
Stocks of rapidly growing hickories, like the pecan and the bitternut, may serve to shorten the bearing time of slowly growing species, like the shagbark, when scions of the latter are grafted upon such stocks. At the present time I have shagbark grafted upon stocks of the pecan, shagbark, bitternut, mocker-nut, and pignut, but these are all young, and I cannot at the present time discern much difference in effect of stock upon scion.
In cross pollenization of hickories, I have not as yet discovered the best way to prevent the development of aphides and of other insects under the protection of the paper bags (which cover the pistillate flowers) sometimes to the point of destruction of flowers before nuts are started. It is probable that sprinkling the leaves with Persian insect powder, and leaving a little insect powder in the bag, will settle the question.
I have not as yet learned how to prevent squirrels from getting at hybridized nuts while they are still upon the tree.