HICKORY NUTS. 185 



I am certain that he is as familiar with this mode of 

 propagation as any one else, and would have practiced 

 it had he found it in any way superior to crown graft- 

 ing. From all that I have been able to learn through a 

 rather extended correspondence, in regard to the propa- 

 gation of the pecan nut tree in the South, I conclude 

 that they are occasionally and sparingly grafted, but 

 with such indifferent results that they are not at all 

 numerous in either orchards or nurseries. 



From certain remarks of Col. Stuart, in his essay 

 on "Pecan Culture," I infer that he has sold grafted 

 trees, for he says: "It costs no more to care for the 

 grove of choice trees than of poor ones ; then, again, the 

 grafted or budded ones come into profitable bearing 

 three years earlier than seedlings. Here is a case in 

 point : Last November (1893) we paid, in cash, two 

 hundred and forty-eight dollars for the nuts which grew 

 upon one tree, the crop of one year. The tree is twenty 

 inches through at its base, and forty-five feet high; such 

 a size tree would grow in twenty or twenty-five years. 

 Now small nuts from the same size tree will sell for not 

 moi'e than fifteen to twenty dollars. Another tree only 

 ten years old bore thirteen and a half dollars worth. 

 These choice nuts are such as we grow seedlings from ; 

 we sell a great many more seedlings than we do grafted 

 or budded trees, simply because they are so much 

 cheaper, and people in general do not realize that such a 

 vast difference exists between the profits of seedling and 

 grafted or budded trees ; but such is the case, and such it 

 will always remain for aught we can see." Soon after I 

 published the description of the Hales' Paper-shell hick- 

 ory in 1810, requests for cions were received from nur- 

 serymen and many amateur horticulturists, who were 

 anxious to try their skill in grafting this excellent vari- 

 ety. Mr. Hales generously responded, and sent cions to 

 a large number of correspondents in various parts of the 



