170 NUT GROWING 



other hickory stocks, even upon those of its cousins, 

 the open-bud group. The shagbark hickory in my 

 experience to date has done best upon stocks of the 

 shagbark, mockernut, or pignut. A number of years, 

 however, are required in some cases for determining 

 that point. Shagbarks which I have grafted upon 

 bitternuts have sometimes made a remarkably good 

 start. Then at the end of two or three years they 

 begin to slow up while shagbarks on shagbark stock, 

 starting slowly at first, surpassed the ones on bitter- 

 nut stock. This may not prove to be true of other 

 localities, and we may find that the pecan stock or 

 some hybrid stock for shagbarks will work out best 

 finally. 



Trees like the hickories, which have a determinate 

 growth, are for the most part not renewed rapidly 

 from sprout growths when the trees have been cut 

 back severely for grafting purposes or otherwise. 

 Shagbark hickory acts very differently from the pop- 

 lar or willow tree in this respect and may make 

 such very small growth for three or four years after 

 being cut back that the new top would seem to be 

 hardly sufficient for supporting the root system. In 

 the shagbark the annual growth in length of the 

 shoot is made in about six weeks in the springtime 

 in Connecticut. The top bud is then formed and 

 increase in diameter of the shoot continues for some 

 weeks thereafter. If we cut a twenty-five- foot shag- 

 bark hickory tree back to ten feet for grafting pur- 

 poses one might suppose that the enormous root 

 would send new growth shooting toward the skies in 



