CAMPAIGN SPEECHES FOR THE NATIONAL TREE 129 



The most important of the hickories are the shagbark, mocker- 

 nut, bittemut, pignut and pecan. 



The shagbark is a tall stately tree seventy to ninety feet in 

 height, unmistakable on account of its rough flaking bark which 

 shags off in large plates. The nuts of the shagbark are the hickory 

 nuts of commerce. It is said that there is more nutrition in a shag- 

 bark-nut than there is in any other nut. The experiment of cul- 

 tivating the shagbark would be an interesting one, certainly it 

 deserves as much attention as the English walnut. The wood of 

 the shagbark is heavy, hard, tough and close grained and it is used 

 for agricultural implements, ax handles, wagon stocks and baskets. 

 It is said that a block of hickory is as strong as a block of wrought 

 iron of the same size. The shagbark grows in the United States 

 from Maine to Florida and as far west as Kansas. 



The mockernut grows to a height of one hundred feet. It gets 

 its name on account of the shell of the nut being thick, hard and 

 difficult to crack. It grows in New England and in the south and 

 wCvSt. Its wood is used for the same purposes as the shagbark and 

 it is of equal value. 



Michau calls the pignut one of the perfect American trees. It is 

 stately and beautiful in outline. The pignut received its name 

 from the first settlers who on seeing their hogs eat its fruit with 

 such relish called it the pignut. The pignut makes a beautiful 

 lawn tree and would be planted everywhere if it were not for its 

 name. The range of the pignut is the same as the other members 

 of the genus. 



When we go to discuss the hickory's opponents we find that the 

 oak was worshipped by the early Greeks. It was dedicated to 

 Jupiter by the Romans and played a part in the religion of the 

 Britons and Germans. Does this sound American? The elm 

 thrives better in England than in the United States. The dog- 

 wood is rapidly becoming extinct. If the dogwood supplies food 

 for forty-seven species of birds, the hickory supplies food for 

 91 ,972 ,000 people. The apple caused so much evil in the beginning 

 of the world that we do not want our streets lined with reminder 

 of what man might have been. The sycamore was used by the 

 Egyptians two thousand years before Christ to bury their mum- 

 mies in. Ancient Egyptian caskets and a modern American 

 national tree do not go together. 



