Part 27 (1/2)

Our grafts of Davis have borne well, the nuts are of good size and crack well, although not as well as those of Wilc.o.x. It is also of very good quality. We consider it to be a top rate nut.

PECK HYBRID, s.h.a.gbark x bitternut--The nuts of this variety are large, thin sh.e.l.led, crack well and are of good quality. It also bears well.

The drawback is that only about one third to one half of the nuts are well filled. I can take freshly shucked nuts of this variety and by placing them in water can pick out a sample of nuts that are just about as good hickory nuts as you can find anywhere, but these will be only about one third of the nuts involved. For this reason we have never propagated it for sale.

In tenth place we have three varieties; Berger, Strever, and Triplett.

BERGER, sh.e.l.lbark--While this variety is quite small for a sh.e.l.lbark, it is quite large when compared with the s.h.a.gbarks. Our graft of the Berger has borne fairly well, cracks well and is of very good quality.

Incidentally our graft is the true Berger. There was some mix-up with the Berger wood, and some who thought they had Berger found that they had something else when their trees started to bear.

STREVER, s.h.a.gbark--The original tree of this variety is growing near Pine Plains here in Dutchess County, on the Old Strever Homestead. This property was later sold to people named Owre, who tried to have the variety named after them. I believe that Strever is the more proper name.

While this variety is of good size and quality, it has not cracked quite well enough to rate it as a top flight hickory.

TRIPLETT, s.h.a.gbark--This is a large s.h.a.gbark which cracks well and is of good quality. Our graft bears well. I believe that it was discovered by Dr. Deming and the late Mr. Beeman. This is a variety which can well bear considerable attention in the future. We are propagating some of the trees for sale.

In eleventh place we have nine varieties, namely: Bridgewater, Griffin, Hagen, Harman, Kirtland, Lingenfelter, Manahan, Oliver, and Wampler.

BRIDGEWATER, s.h.a.gbark--A large fine variety, cracks well, yields well and is of good quality. This is another discovery of Dr. Deming's and Mr. Beeman's. We have started to propagate it for sale.

GRIFFIN, s.h.a.gbark--I have mislaid my comments on this variety and cannot remember much about it, except that it is of good size and bears well.

HAGEN, s.h.a.gbark--We have not had enough nuts of this variety to enable us to form an opinion of it.

HARMAN, s.h.a.gbark--A large nut. We did not think much of our first crop of this variety but the second crop was very good.

KIRTLAND, s.h.a.gbark--This is a fine large nut, but with the one good crop, we have had, only about half of the nuts were well filled. The other half were floaters, only partly filled.

LINGENFELTER, s.h.a.gbark--Here again we have had too few nuts to enable us to form an opinion. Mr. Reed thought very well of it.

MANAHAN, s.h.a.gbark--This nut is of southern origin and I fear that we are too far north for it. However we have had one crop that was very good.

All other crops have not been matured. It is evidentally a very good nut where it can be grown.

OLIVER, s.h.a.gbark--Too few nuts to form an opinion.

WAMPLER, sh.e.l.lbark--Too few nuts to form an opinion.

In twelfth place on our list, in order of ripening, we have Bowman and Redcay. These are both sh.e.l.lbarks and the nuts have not been well filled, as borne on our grafts.

In last place on our list, we have a southern s.h.a.gbark, Booth, and two hicans, Bixby and Burlington. We have not been able to form an opinion of Booth. Bixby and Burlington have, so far, been very shy bearers and the nuts have not been well filled. They are of very large size and very excellent quality.

The time elapsed between the earliest and latest ripening of these different hickory varieties was 36 days. The time between the different steps were about three days. I do not give the dates because they will vary from year to year. In early years, Anthony has been ripe very early in September.

Summarizing this report shows that our tests so far indicate that the following varieties are good and well worthy of propagation: Anthony (probably No. 1), Weschcke, Bauer, Cedar Rapids, Fox, Clark, Wilc.o.x, Minnie, Davis, Berger, Triplett, Bridgewater, Manahan (farther south).

Instead of listing these 13 varieties alphabetically or in order of their merits, I have listed them in order of their ripening, earliest first, and so on. Those varieties in the first half of the list can be grown in locations considerably farther north than our location, which is 41 45' North Lat.i.tude, while those in the last half of the list are not likely to be adapted to locations farther north than ours.

You will note that five of these varieties are not well known, but are good varieties. They are, namely; Bauer, Cedar Rapids, Clark, Triplett, and Bridgewater.[30]

[30] The Bridgewater pollenizes the male-sterile Weschcke variety in Wisconsin. See Mr. Weschcke's discussion, pp. 193-95 in NNGA Report for 1948.--Ed.