ON YHE HICKORY NUT 
English walnut and the Japanese walnut. If 
hybridization could be effected, it may be expected 
that trees of rapid growth, similar to my hybrid 
walnuts, will be produced. Not unlikely some 
varieties that tend to produce nuts at a very early 
age, like my hybrid chestnuts, may also appear as 
the result of such combinations. And in any event 
it may confidently be expected that new varieties 
will give opportunity for wide selection, and for 
relatively rapid improvement in the qualities of 
the nuts themselves. 
We have learned that the pre-eminent qualities 
of our various cultivated fruits have largely been 
given them by hybridization. 
The contrast between the tiny beech plum, for 
example, and its gigantic descendant a few gen- 
erations removed, offers an object lesson in the 
possibilities of fruit development by hybridizing 
and selection. And, for that matter, each and 
every one of our improved varieties of orchard 
fruits teaches the same lesson, even though the 
wild progenitor is not at hand for comparison. 
So there is every reason to expect that the wild 
pecan will similarly respond to the efforts of the 
plant developer, and that its descendants, a few 
generations removed, will take on qualities that 
even the most sanguine experimenter of to-day 
would scarcely dare to predict. 
[143] 
