82 LUTHER BURBANK 



selective breeding, although up to the present 

 time few comprehensive experiments in this 

 direction have been made. 



I have now little doubt that some of the variant 

 hickories that I knew as a boy were hybrids. 



The two species of hickory are closely related 

 and I have reason to believe hybridize sometimes 

 in the wild state. I have received specimens of 

 hickory nuts from different parts of the United 

 States that certainly were natural hybrids and no 

 doubt such hybridization occurs not infrequently. 

 The hickory and the pecan also cross quite 

 readily. 



It is probable that when the attempt is sys- 

 tematically made to develop the hickory nut, the 

 method of hybridizing the various species will be 

 employed to give still wider variation and to 

 facilitate a wider selection. 



Some Enormous Western Hickories 



There is a species of the hickory nut (C lacini- 

 osa) that grows in the valleys of the Mississippi 

 and the Ohio that is of relatively enormous size. 

 The shell of this variety, however, is thick, and 

 the meat is not generally as fine in flavor as that 

 of the eastern shellbark hickory. But the size of 

 this wild variety gives assurance that under culti- 

 vation and selection the nut may be made to take 



