HICKORIES 173 



about the kind of apples wanted the answer calls for 

 Spitzenberg, Mackintosh Red, or Delicious, as the 

 case may be. Up to the present time the public in 

 general is not past the point of calling for large 

 paper-shell pecans. That is much like calling for 

 large red apples. To-morrow when buying pecans 

 people will presumably ask for the Schley, the Posey, 

 the San Saba, or some other pecan that is purchased 

 for some well-defined reason. 



The commercial side of hickory raising is being 

 worked out for the pecan only, as yet. We may 

 assume that several of the other species of hickory 

 adapted to growing in the north will compete with 

 pecans in importance eventually. The reason is that 

 some of the other hickories stand quite as high as 

 the pecan in food value and general excellence aside 

 from the quality question. At the time of writing 

 low grade seedling shellbark nuts from the west are 

 selling in the retail market in New York for twenty- 

 five cents a pound. I have seen nuts of this species 

 being loaded on cars in Ohio at fifty cents a bushel. 

 The present New York price, to be sure, represents 

 profiteering. Fine grades of shagbark hickories and 

 some of the hybrids will command prices equally 

 high with prices for best pecans. 



While the timber of the pecan tree is not so valu- 

 able as that of several other species of hickory, the 

 raising of pecan nuts has progressed to the point 

 where, at the present moment, this promises to rival 

 the black walnut as the most important species of 



