THE HICKORIES SHELLBACKS. 65 



THE SHELLBABKS. 



Under this head come the two species, Hicoria ovata, commonly known as the 

 Shagbark, and Hicoria laciniosa, the Shellbark. The name shellbark comes from the 

 peculiar rough, shaggy bark which characterizes the trunks and larger branches of 

 trees of these species after they reach the age of about 10 years. This and the very 

 thick hulls surrounding the nuts are noticeable characteristics of the two species. 

 They can hardly be classed among cultivated nuts, though both species have for 

 many years been planted in collections of nut bearing trees. There is yet standing 

 at Bedford Park Station, on the Harlem Kailroad, in New York City, a row of trees 

 of the shagbark, planted as nuts by Andrew Corsa 1 at the close of the Revolution. 

 Numerous other instances of attempts at growing these trees for timber and nuts 

 are also on record, but from a pomological standpoint the successes have been few. 

 One of the chief causes of failure has been the tendency of seedlings grown from 

 choice nuts to deteriorate, and the difficulty experienced in perpetuating occasional 

 improved types. It has been found that a very large proportion of the seedlings 

 grown from choice nuts are inferior to the seed planted. And when an occasional 

 choice variety has been secured the ordinary modes of bud propagation have failed 

 to increase its stock. In view of the numerous superior wild types, especially of 

 Hicoria ovata, that have been brought to light recently, and a better understanding 

 of the methods of propagation suited to the hickory, there seems to be reasonable 

 ground for the belief that by selection, cultivation, and careful propagation there 

 may yet be produced varieties bearing good crops of thin-shelled nuts, possessing 

 superior cracking qualities and good flavor. 



GRAFTING THE HICKORY. 



The methods, the skill, and the care necessary in grafting the shellbarks and 

 other Northern hickories are the same as for the pecan. In the answers we have 

 received the failures and partial successes each number about as many as the sat- 

 isfactory results reported. Florida and Georgia growers have been among those 

 most successful with the cleft graft. They have used the more common hickories for 

 stocks upon which to propagate choice pecans. By some, grafting was done at the 

 surface of the ground, and by others at several feet above the ground. In Illinois 

 Benjamin Buckmau has been successful with crown-cleft graft in early spring. In 

 New Jersey inarching has been more successful than either cleft grafting or slip 

 grafting with Charles Parry, of Parry, while William J. Logan, of Summerville, gets 

 satisfactory results from ring budding. In Ohio C. W. Faust, of Canton, and the late 

 Leo Weltz, of Wilmington, have reported success either to graft or bud "the same 

 as for apple." In Pennsylvania Charles C. West, of Milan, has "found the ordinary 

 top grafting successful;" Davisou Green wait, of Chambersburg, says: "The only way 

 I ever succeeded was by cutting off the young trees close to the ground, and cleft 

 grafting, waxing, and covering up the scion to the top with earth." By directions 

 from this office many hickory and pecan grafts were set early in the spring of 1891 

 at different points in the United States by the method last described, and, so far as 

 learned, the results were generally satisfactory. 



SHAGBARK (Hicoria ovata Britton; Carya alba Nuttall). 

 (Synonyms: Little Shagbark, Little Shellbark, White Shellbark, White Walnut.) 



This species is found native from southern Maine westward across Canada, Michi- 

 gan, Wisconsin, and southeastern Minnesota; southward (although sparingly) through 

 eastern Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory, and Texas; and eastward across Missis- 



1 Grandfather of Andrew Corsa, mentioned on page 39. 

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