HICKORIES 171 



the following year as would be done by the peach. 

 Such, however, is not the case. Grafts placed in 

 such a stock that has been cut back to ten feet or 

 natural sprouts starting from the latent buds may 

 make only a few inches of growth before putting 

 up top buds in the first year, and not much more 

 than that in the second year. A good many years 

 of growth are required before the balance is restored 

 between top and root in the shagbark, although the 

 top may begin bearing freely a long while before this 

 balance is restored. 



Grafts of the hickories will sometimes make a 

 growth of two or three inches of new shoot with 

 good looking leaves, and these suddenly begin to 

 wilt and die back unaccountably. We may perhaps 

 find explanation for this phenomenon in Loeb's 

 theory that hormones furnished by the stock for 

 shoot building are not always adapted to the chem- 

 istry of the new shoot. It dies back before the leaves 

 are well enough developed for exerting an influence 

 upon the stock with their own hormones. 



For the most part, however, hickory trees of all 

 sorts may now be propagated as easily and as suc- 

 cessfully as apple trees following the plans described 

 in the notes on grafting. The best dealers in hickory 

 nursery stock sell only grafted varieties that have 

 been chosen because of special merit. The shagbark 

 hickory, Carya ovata, has a natural range extending 

 from lower Canada to western Florida and from 

 the Atlantic seaboard to central Kansas. A species 

 with such range in adaptation may probably be 



