HICKORIES, ELMS AND ASH TREES 



By Warren H. M11.1.ER, M. F. 



THIS group constitute a striking 

 set of individuals which, next 

 after the oaks, maples and 

 birches are most frequently 

 met with in the average hardwood for- 

 est. Our hickory is a most American 

 tree, as typical of our Republic (before 

 the present epoch of imperialism set in) 

 as the wild turkey among our birds or 

 the bison among our animals. They 

 have nothing like the hickory in Eu- 

 rope ; no tree that combines so many 

 fine lumber qualities as well as produc- 

 ing a nut finer in fiavor than any im- 

 ported variety whatsoever. 



It is one of those distinctively Amer- 

 ican things, unique in its excellence not 

 to be matched elsewhere — a leaf of 

 hickory ought to find its place on our 

 national escutcheon ! Like the turkey 

 and the bison, the hickory has been little 

 appreciated by us as a nation, and it has 

 been allowed to go almost to the van- 

 ishing point. The hickory bark borer 

 destroys hundreds of thousands of wild 

 trees every year, now that the birds 

 are so scarce; no young trees are com- 

 ing up to take the place of those that 

 we have ; and no attempt is being made 

 to raise hickories on a large scale, either 

 in orchard or in forest. On the farm 

 the hickory is appreciated to the point 

 of leaving a fine one standing when 

 clearing a field, partly as a shade tree 

 for cows, partly because a good one 

 can be depended upon for about two 

 bushels of nuts every seed year. 



The wood commands about twice the 

 price of white pine, $30 at the mill per 

 M., and w^e use 350 million feet of it 

 a year, a rate of cutting that plays havoc 

 with the very existence of the tree in 

 wild forests. The estate owner has a 

 big field ahead of him in the study 

 and growing of this tree (the shagbark 

 being the one understood by the gen- 

 eral term "hickory"), yet the only one 

 actually orcharded on a large scale is 

 the southern hickory or pecan. As the 

 natural range of this nut is up the Mis- 



sissippi Valley as far north as Wiscon- 

 sin, there is no reason why it cannot be 

 grown anywhere throughout our area, in 

 fact all the nurseries ofifer "hardy" pe- 

 cans for northern growing, which are 

 doubtless from wild stock growing in 

 the northern part of its range. But 

 there is no reason why shagbark hickory 

 can not be grown, either in forest or in 

 orchard, the former for lumber and nut 

 crops, the latter for nuts only — either 

 way it would be a paying proposition 

 for one whose tastes lie in the realm of 

 horticulture. But I take it that these ar- 

 ticles interest chiefly the man who does 

 not fancy the cares and labors of or- 

 charding, but who does love to have 

 plenty of wood about him and is not 

 averse to bettering the quality of and 

 beautifying within reasonable expense 

 limits his own wild forest. For him the 

 shagbark will be a tree to plant and en- 

 courage wherever a moist loamy bottom 

 of granite, limestone or clay base ex- 

 ists. It does not do well in sand base 

 soils. Nurseries seldom oft'er young 

 hickories, as they are exceedingly dif- 

 ficult to transplant, and wild stock, 

 gathered, no matter how young, is 

 nearly certain to die. The way to set 

 a tree in a given locality, then, is to 

 plant one or two sound healthy nuts 

 and save the vigorous seedling. Also, 

 wherever nature has already started a 

 young hickory, to clear away the over- 

 growth and give it all the encourage- 

 ment possible. 



We have a number of species of 

 hickories, but four of them will be 

 enough to know and identify. The 

 shagbark is known at once by its long, 

 hard, whitish gray bark scales, warp- 

 ing off at both top and bottom from the 

 trunk. Young specimens are not so 

 easy to be sure of, but look for a large 

 five-leaved leaf with the center leaflet 

 very large, two nearly as large on each 

 side of it, and two little ones behind 

 that, and your identification is reason- 

 ably certain. Occasionally they have a 



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