92 
RECAPITULATION. 
causes, which hasten the destruction of the forests in this part of the new 
world, lead me to believe, that in less than 50 years they will not furnish 
a tenth part of the hoops demanded in commerce. Hence arise motives 
sufficiently powerful to engage proprietors, who seek to preserve their 
forests and to augment their value, to multiply in them the most useful 
trees, and especially the Hickories. The object might be fully attained by 
planting the nuts, previously made to germinate in boxes fdled with earth, 
and kept moist in the cellar ; the success of this simple method is certain. 
It would be advantageous also, to plant a greater number than the soil can 
sustain, that when the poles are an inch in diameter, a part of them may be 
cut for hoops,* while the rest are left to grow for fuel, or for other uses to 
which the Hickory is appropriate. 
It has been seen by what precedes, that though the Hickory wood has 
essential defects, they are compensated by good properties which render it 
valuable in the arts, and which entitle it to the attention of Europeans ; 
above all, as a combustible. Though its growth is slow during its early 
years, it should form a part of our forests. But I doubt whether this can 
be effected except by planting nuts in the woods, for the trees, even when 
very young, with difficulty survive transplantation. Before they are 3 lines 
in diameter and 18 inches tall, they have a tap-root 3 feet long and desti- 
tute of fibres. Hence it has happened, that of more than a hundred thou- 
sand young plants, produced by nuts which I have at different times sent to 
France, very few are found alive. They have perished in the removffi from 
the nursery, or in the second transplantation to the place of their ultimate 
destination. The Black Walnut and Bitternut, on the contrary, whose 
roots do not descend deeply and are plentifully garnished with fibres, easily 
recover after transplantation, even when 6 or 8 feet high at the time of 
their removml. 
In concluding this article, I recommend particularly for propagation in 
European forests the Shellbark Hickory and the Pignut Hickory, whose 
wood unites in the highest degree the valuable properties of the group. I 
think also, that the Pecannut merits attention from promoters of useful cul- 
ture, not so much for its wood as for its fruit, which is excellent and more 
delicate than that of the European Walnut. It might probably be doubled 
in size, if the practice was successfully adopted of grafting this species upon 
the Black Walnut or upon the Common European Walnut. 
* [Or for walking-sticks, for which the consumption is considerable, and the demand con- 
stantly increasing. Emerson, “ Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts 
