Part 26 (2/2)

CEDAR RAPIDS, s.h.a.gbark--While our graft of this variety has borne but moderately, we consider it to be a very good variety. It is of good size, cracks well, is of good quality and attractive shape.

HINES, s.h.a.gbark--While our graft of this variety has borne well, cracks well and is of good quality, it is so small that we have never propagated it for sale.

INDEPENDENCE, s.h.a.gbark--The nuts of this variety are so small that we have paid little attention to it.

FOX, s.h.a.gbark--This variety is in fifth place in order of ripening.

Fox won first prize in the 1934 N.N.G.A. contest. But there is a deep mystery connected with this variety as subsequent crops, grown on grafts, have not produced nuts of such top qualities. There have been many theories advanced but no one has solved the mystery yet. One theory is that there is bud variation in the parent tree and that Mr. Fox, quite naturally, cut scion wood from the lower parts of the tree, which were most readily accessible. During the war, I secured a special allotment of gasoline and made the trip to Fonda, N. Y., to cut scions from all parts of the tree. The scions from the various parts of the tree were labeled separately and were grafted on stocks in our test orchard. While not all of these grafts lived, we have living grafts from nearly all parts of the tree. I note that at least one of these grafts has nuts on it this year. If there is bud variation we hope that we will have at least some grafts of the superior Fox nuts.

In spite of all this, Fox is an excellent variety, being of good size, cracks well, and is of very good quality. While it is fifth in order of ripening, it is still an early hickory and will succeed considerably farther north than our location.

In sixth place we have two varieties, namely; Clark and Stocking.

CLARK, s.h.a.gbark--Our graft of this variety has borne well, the nuts being of good size, crack well and are of good quality. We consider it to be a very good variety.

STOCKING, s.h.a.gbark x bitternut--While our graft has grown very well, it has produced but very few nuts. We were not very greatly impressed with these.

In seventh place in order of ripening, we have two varieties, Camp No. 2 and Stratford.

CAMP NO. 2, s.h.a.gbark--We did not find this variety good enough to interest us very much. Subsequent crops may show up better.

STRATFORD, not sure whether s.h.a.gbark or hybrid[29]--Our Stratford graft has been poorly tended and has had little chance to show its merits. So while it has an excellent reputation, we know very little about it.

However we have several good sized grafts of it, growing in nursery row, which have several nuts on this year, so we will find out more about it soon.

[29] It is a bitternut hybrid.--Ed.

In eighth place we have three varieties; Proper, Shaul, and Wilc.o.x.

While being in eighth place, these are still medium early varieties.

PROPER, s.h.a.gbark--This is a little known variety, our graft is rather young and we have had too few nuts to form any opinion of this variety as yet.

SHAUL, s.h.a.gbark--While this is a very good nut, being of good size, cracks well and of good quality, our graft on s.h.a.gbark stock has grown slowly and it is the one variety so far that we have found will not do well on our bitternut stocks.

WILc.o.x, s.h.a.gbark--So far this is our favorite variety. The graft has grown into a fine tree and has borne good crops of nuts which are of good size, crack almost perfectly and are of very good quality.

MINNIE, s.h.a.gbark--While we have not had a crop of this variety since starting to keep a ripening record, it ripens about the same time as Wilc.o.x and is a very good variety.

Ninth on our list we have two varieties; Davis and Peck Hybrid. It so happens that I discovered both of these varieties.

DAVIS, s.h.a.gbark--First prize winner in the New York and New England Contest of 1934. Incidentally, a sample of Fox nuts was awarded tenth place in this same contest. You will note that this was the same year in which Fox won first place in the N.N.G.A.

Davis has pretty well lived up to expectations. Grafts of this variety are rapid growers. It is the only variety we have ever succeeded in making live on pignut stocks. While the grafts are slower growing on pignut stocks, they have lived for several years and have borne nuts.

But as the squirrels have stolen all of the nuts, we do not know how they compare with the nuts grown on other stocks.

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