Carya 609 



and none of great age are recorded here. When cut down, or when killed to the 

 ground by frost in their young state, they push shoots freely from the stool, though 

 they do not produce suckers. 



Dawson in Garden and Forest, ix. "]"] (1896), gives an account of his method of 

 grafting the cultivated varieties of hickory, and says that the best stock is the 

 bitternut, which grows twice as fast at Boston as the common shagbark. He per- 

 forms the operation under glass in the month of January, by side-grafting close to 

 the collar of the stock, and plunging the pots into sphagnum moss up to the top bud 

 of the graft. 



Timber of the Hickories 



The best account of the wood is given by Michaux and Emerson. The 

 timber of the different species is so similar in appearance, that I doubt if any one 

 could identify without the names, the six species illustrated by Hough ; and 

 as this author rarely mentions the age or origin of the trees from which his 

 specimens were taken, or shows much personal knowledge of their peculiarities, his 

 work is not of so much practical value as it might have been. 



Michaux specially commends the timber of the shellbark and the pignut. 

 Emerson does not say which is best, but says that the most valuable is that which 

 has been grown most rapidly, and places the pignut and shellbark first for weight. 



As fuel hickory is, or rather was in days when it was abundant, preferred to all 

 other woods. But its greatest value is for carriage building, axe and tool handles, 

 and especially for cask hoops, of which in Michaux's time large quantities were 

 exported, as well as used at home. Now, however, it is superseded to a great 

 extent for this purpose by iron. 



An article on hickory by Mr. J. F. Brown in Arboriculture, vi. No. 4, states 

 that the great demand for hoops in the apple-growing districts of Virginia, is rapidly 

 exhausting the local supply of young trees, which is now being filled from Southern 

 Indiana, and that in consequence the supply of second-growth timber fit for wheels 

 and carriage work is likely to become diminished, and in well -settled regions is 

 already exhausted. He states that when the trees are cut and put on the market, no 

 discrimination is made between the different species, though second-growth hickory 

 is always preferred to the timber of old trees, because it is more elastic, tougher, 

 and stronger. He quotes a report of a meeting of over 200 representatives of the 

 carriage-building industry at Chicago, at which it was stated that the hickory trees 

 have recently been attacked by insects to such an extent, that unless some means can 

 be taken to check their ravages, there will be no more hickory available in ten 

 years ; and though ash, maple, and other woods have been tried as a substitute, there 

 is no other wood so suitable for this industry as hickory. It is imported to some 

 extent to Europe, usually in the form of second-growth poles, which are produced 

 from the stool and are used by carriage builders. 



Cobbett,^ with his usual enthusiasm for everything from America, urged that 

 the hickory should be planted for coppice wood on account of the value of the hoops 



1 Woodlands, arts. 295, 296 (1825). 



