173 



THE NUT CULTUEIST. 



are plenty of larger ones with thin shells which would 

 be far more valuable for cultivation; 



A careful research extending over a period of a 

 quarter of a century, yields only a solitary instance of 

 the propagation and dissemination of a variety of the 

 shellbark hickory, and this one is Hales' Paper-shell, 

 which I named, described and figured-in the Rural New- 

 Yorker, Nov. 19, 1870, p; -3.83, Vol. XXII. I am thus 

 particular in regard^ tq -time and place, because years 

 hence these facts may be of jcaor& importance than at 

 the present day. ' " 



The original tree of this remarkable variety is grow- 

 ing upon the farm of Mr. Henry Hales; near Eidgewood, 

 N. J., and on bottom land within a few rods of the 

 Saddle river. The tree is probably more than a hun- 

 dred years old, and is about seventy-five, feet high, and 

 nearly two feet in diameter at the base, and of the shape 

 shown in Fig. 60, taken from a sketch made in the fall 



.of 1894. There 



are a large num- 

 ber of the shellbark 



hickories growing 



nearby, and while 



there are several 



excellent and very 



large varieties 



among them, the 

 FIG. 61. HALBs' HioKOKY. onc I have named 

 is by far the largest and m-ost distinct in form, and with 

 the thinnest shell; in fact, the shell is much"thinner 

 than in many of the pecan nuts that reach our Northern 

 markets from the South. The size and form of these 

 nuts is clearly shown in Fig. 61, while the thin shell and 

 thick, plump kernel is seen in the cross-section, Fig. 63. 

 It will, be noticed that these nuts differ from the ordi- 

 nary varieties of this species in the absence of the sharp 



FIO. 62. SECTION OF 

 HALES' HICKORY. 



