124 NUT GROWING 



is in line with our experience in the mixing of char- 

 acters along Mendelian lines. Given a sufficient num- 

 ber of hybrids and we shall have here and there one 

 with spectacular characteristics of special value to 

 be handed down by grafting upon other stocks. 



Now that horticulturists of the present moment 

 are turning so freely toward the idea of producing 

 qualities of hybrids artificially the next generation 

 will see nuts which were not dreamed of in the days 

 when I was a boy. The crossing of nut trees is not 

 difficult work. It is pretty work, suitable for any 

 one with a speculative turn of mind who likes to do 

 constructive things like the making of new kinds 

 of trees. We simply remove the male flowers from 

 branches carrying female flowers before the male 

 flowers have begun to shed their pollen. The female 

 flowers are then covered with oiled paper bags tied 

 over them for protection, and when the danger from 

 self-pollination is passed we take off the bags and 

 add a little pollen, which we have kept for the pur- 

 pose pollen from some tree bearing remarkably 

 valuable nuts. 



Nuts resulting from this cross pollination when 

 planted give us new varieties of nut trees which 

 never have been seen before by anybody and that is 

 so interesting that very many people will probably 

 take up hybridization as an outdoor sport. Some 

 of the hybrid trees will have remarkable timber 

 value, and others remarkable nut value. Some of 

 the hybrids will bear very early in their history and 

 others very late. If one is impatient to determine at 



