178 THE NUT CULTUKIST. 



but in some unknown way the idea became prevalent 

 that these trees could not be transplanted with any as- 

 surance of success, and this has been kept alive, either 

 through ignorance or by those whose interest led them 

 to encourage the planting of the rapid-growing and 

 easily propagated kinds, instead of those which, though 

 less profitable to the producer, would be of far greater 

 value to the purchaser. It must be admitted, however, 

 that the hickories are not so tenacious of life as the 

 willows, poplars, elms and similar kinds of trees, requir- 

 ing more care in their cultivation if they are to be trans- 

 planted when of a proper size for setting along roadsides 

 or elsewhere, for shade and ornament, but they are cer- 

 tainly no more difi&cult to make live than the beech, oak, 

 tulip and various species of the magnolia. 



The slow growth of the hickories while young is 

 another objection often urged as a fault of these trees, 

 but there is nothing lost but time in waiting, and this 

 passes just as swiftly whether we plant trees that may in 

 ten years yield a golden harvest, or nothing but leaves ; 

 besides, the hickories respond as readily to stimulants 

 and good care generally as the common fruit trees of our 

 orchards. While the farmers of our Northern States 

 are generally quite indifferent as to what becomes of 

 their old hickory trees, and seldom attempt to preserve 

 the wild seedlings that spring up in the fields and on 

 the borders of forests, their fellow countrymen of the 

 Southern States have, within the past two or three 

 decades, discovered that they possess an inexhaustible 

 source of wealth in their common pecan nut. Formerly 

 these trees were sacrificed whenever a choice piece of 

 tough timber was wanted, and often merely to secure 

 the entire crop of nuts without waiting for nature to 

 drop them within reach ; but the advent of many lines 

 of railroads, steamboats, and other means of communi- 

 cation with the great cities and their markets, has 



