LUTHER BURBANK 



The reason for this, doubtless, is that the 

 hickory is a tree of very slow growth, and that it is 

 also exceedingly difficult to propagate by budding 

 or grafting, or any other process except from the 

 seed. 



The prospect of improving the product of a 

 tree that does not bear until it is ten or fifteen years 

 old, and that resists all efforts to force it to early 

 bearing, is not alluring, considering the short span 

 of human life. Yet we can scarcely doubt that the 

 hickory nut will presently be brought within the 

 ken of the plant experimenter, and that there will 

 ultimately be developed nuts of very choice varie- 

 ties, comparable in size, probably, to the English 

 walnut, and having a quality that will place them 

 at least on a par with any other nut now grown in 

 the temperate zones. 



Even in the wild state, the best of shellbark 

 hickories bear nuts of unchallenged quality. It is 

 a matter of course that these nuts can be improved 

 by cultivation and selective breeding. 



Material for such selective breeding is fur- 

 nished abundantly by the wide variation of hick- 

 ories in the wild state. I had observed this varia- 

 tion in my boyhood days, just as I had noted the 

 variation in the chestnuts. The shagbark hickory, 

 doubtless the best of the tribe, was quite abundant 

 along the banks of the Nashua River near my 



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