Chapter VII: Hickory Nuts (2)

In Bulletin No. 105, "Nut Culture for North Carolina," issued from the N. C. State Experiment Station, 1894, Mr. W. A. Taylor, Assistant Pomologist U. S. Department of Agriculture, in referring to budding and grafting of these trees, says: "These latter operations are less successful with the pecan than most fruit trees, though they are by no means impossible to accomplish. On seedlings one or two years old annular budding in early summer succeeds best." But here again we are left in doubt in regard to what the writer considers "a success." Then, again, the line between the "possible" and "impossible," in horticultural matters, is a rather difficult one to determine, and Mr. Taylor fails to cite a single instance in which either annular or any other form of either budding or grafting had been successfully practiced. The Bulletins issued from the Division of Pomology of the Department of Agriculture, give us no information whatever on this subject of propagation of the hickories, further than to repeat the old formulas of annular, splice and cleft grafting; but as to results they have always been provokingly silent.

Having been repeatedly assured, by men who presumed to know, that the pecan tree was successfully propagated in the South by grafting, and many thousands annually raised in this way, it seems strange that such plants are so rarely offered by nurserymen. Seedlings of choice varieties are, of course, abundant enough, but a man might, with as much propriety, offer seedling Bartlett pears or Baldwin apples, as pecan trees, expecting to perpetuate varieties. In corresponding with Mr. P. J. Berckmans, of the Fruitland Nurseries of Augusta, Ga., whose experience and acquaintance with the fruits of the South are, without doubt, in advance of any other horticulturist of the past or even the present generation, in reply to my request for information on grafting pecans, he writes: "For the past five or six years we have grafted various varieties of the pecan nuts. I do not know of any other nurseryman South who offers grafted trees. I presume the reason of this is, the great difficulty in having the grafts take, as we seldom have more than fifteen to twenty-five per cent. grow. We usually crown graft in February, using one-year-old seedlings grown in nursery rows. Owing to the small percentage of grafts which grow, grafted trees must, necessarily, be quite expensive, and for this reason there are so few attempts made in this method of propagation."

Mr. Berckmans makes no reference to annular budding of the pecan, so strongly and frequently recommended by the several writers already quoted, although 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 grafting. From all that I have been able to learn through a rather extended correspondence, in regard to the propagation 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 (1892) 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 more 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 hickory in 1870, requests for cions were received from nurserymen and many amateur horticulturists, who were anxious to try their skill in grafting this excellent variety. Mr. Hales generously responded, and sent cions to a large number of correspondents in various parts of the country, because he was desirous of having the variety preserved and propagated. During the following ten years the old original tree was kept pretty well pruned, in filling orders for cions; those sent to nurserymen were to be raised on shares, one-half of all the successfully grafted trees to be returned to Mr. Hales. Being a near neighbor, my opportunities for keeping informed as to the result of this arrangement was all that I could desire. To one nursery firm in central New York Mr. Hales sent about one thousand cions per annum for four successive years, and in return received just four feeble grafted plants as his share of the total product of the four thousand cions. But as the four plants received soon died, he closed that account as one of total loss. Previously, however, he had sent a quantity of cions to Mr. J. R. Trumpy, of the Kissena Nurseries, Flushing, N. Y., whose skill as a propagator of ligneous plants is probably second to that of no man in this country; the result proved that our faith in the man was not misplaced, for Mr. Hales received for his share of the experiment something over two dozen grafted trees, and most of these are now handsome specimens ten to twenty feet high. Just what percentage of the cions set were made to unite and grow I have not been informed, but the experiment was, doubtless, rather unsatisfactory as a commercial transaction.

In addition to the plants sent to Mr. Hales, there have been quite a number distributed among the customers of the nurseries named; consequently, we are pretty well assured of the perpetuation of this remarkably fine variety, even when the original tree succumbs to old age, or should it be accidentally destroyed. I am inclined to give Mr. Trumpy credit for being the first man to graft the shellbark hickory in this or any other country, and make the cions unite and grow, for I have failed to find any instance of success in this mode of propagating these trees, prior to his with the Hales' Paper-shell.

In reply to a note sent him a few months since, asking: "How did or do you graft the hickories?" he replied as follows:

"I put the hickory stocks in pots in the spring, and graft them
the following spring, say in April, and in the house. The cions
are cut during the winter, so as to keep them in good order
until wanted for use. I find it is better to operate in April
than earlier in the winter. I also graft them out of doors about
the beginning of May, when the stocks are growing. They will
succeed very well out of doors, provided the stocks are large
enough for the cions. Any kind of grafting will do, but crown
grafting is the best. I have not done much of late in the way of
grafting hickories in the nursery, not having suitable stocks;
besides, when the weather becomes warm enough for outside work,
vegetation pushes far too rapidly to give a man a chance to do
much of this kind of grafting."

Since the above was written and while these pages were being put in type, Mr. Jackson Dawson, of the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Mass., has given his method of grafting the hickories, in _Garden and Forest_, Feb. 19, 1896, as follows:

"My method," writes Mr. Dawson, "has been to side-graft, using a
cion with part of the second year's wood attached, binding it
firmly and covering it with damp sphagnum until the union has
been made. The best time I have found for the operation under
glass has been during February, and the plants have been kept
under glass until midsummer, and wintered the first year in a
cold frame. In all the genera I find certain species which may
be called free stocks,--that is, stocks which take grafts more
readily than others. Thus, nearly all the oaks will graft
readily on _Quercus Robur_; the birches will graft more easily
on _Betula alba_ than on others; so of the hickories,
observation has led me to believe that the best stock is the
bitternut, _Hicoria minima_. This species grows almost twice as
rapidly as the common shagbark hickory, and while young the
cambium is quite soft. I should advise anyone who wishes to
propagate hickories on a large scale to grow stocks of this
species in boxes not more than four inches deep. In this way all
the roots can be saved and there will be no extreme taproot, and
when shaken out of the boxes the plants are easily established
in pots and ready for grafting. If taken up in the ordinary way
from the woods, it requires almost two years to get them well
rooted, and often the stocks die for want of roots after the
grafts have really taken. If grown in rich soil, the stocks will
be large enough to use in one or two years. I should then pot
them early in the fall, keeping them from heavy frosts, and
bringing them into the house about the first of January, and as
soon as they begin to make roots. I should side-graft them close
to the collar and plunge them in sphagnum moss, leaving the top
bud of the graft out to the air. The graft ought to be well
united about the last of March, when the plants should be taken
from the sphagnum and set in the body of the house to finish
their growth."

All who have had any experience in the propagation of trees by grafting in spring, are well aware of the flight of time, in the hurry of work that must be done in a few days or not at all. It is true that the season for grafting may be prolonged or extended a little by cutting the cions in winter and storing them in a cool, moist place, where they remain dormant after vegetation has started in the open air; but this does not affect the stocks, and these may come on slowly or rapidly, varying with the seasons, and the grafter must not only watch for opportune moments, but take his chances of striking the right time and conditions, in order to be successful. With such hard wood trees as the hickories it is better to be a little ahead of time than a few days too late, for frosts, and even quite a severe freeze, will not injure a dormant cion, and under the most favorable conditions the union between stock and cion is a rather slow process. For this reason I advise giving as much time as possible, and while I do not claim to having had any personal experience as a grafter, in the South, still I am inclined to think that grafting in the fall, and not later than December, would be preferable to later in winter or spring. By giving the cion and stock two or three months in which to form granulations and cohesion, there would be more certainty of success. Of course, I now refer to what is called crown grafting on the root below the surface of the ground, and when the cion is fixed in place with the usual ligatures of waxed paper or cloth, the soil is drawn back into place and the cion entirely covered with it, but very lightly over the terminal bud.

Where small stocks are not at hand, the roots of large trees may be severed and the end partly lifted towards the surface, as shown in Fig. 68, and when grafted, allowed to remain in position until the following season, and then taken up entire or with roots enough to insure future growth. The same or a similar process may be practiced to propagate a choice variety of the hickory, and a mere severing of the roots will insure the production of suckers from near the severed end, as shown in Fig. 69.

In grafting isolated stocks in this way, a small or large stake should be placed by the side of each, to indicate their position, and also protect them from being trampled upon. I make this suggestion because, in my own experience, it has often proved successful with various kinds of hard-wooded trees and shrubs that failed when grafted in the spring. Here in the North it is rather difficult, as well as expensive, to protect cions set in the open ground in the fall; but in the South it is different, and a handful of almost any coarse litter would be sufficient to prevent severe freezing.

But grafting in the fall in the open ground is unnecessary, where small seedling stocks are used in the propagation of any kind of tree; in fact, nurserymen do very little grafting of this kind in spring, for they learned, by long experience, that the most economical and certain method of multiplying such trees is to take up the stocks in the fall, and then graft them indoors during the winter, having stocks and cions stored in cool cellars or pits, where they will be readily accessible when wanted. Apples, pears, quinces, grapes, and many other kinds of hardy trees, shrubs and vines are now extensively propagated by grafting during the winter months, and I do not know of any good reason why the hickories and other closely allied nut trees should not be multiplied in this way. I have tried it, on a limited scale, with the shellbark hickories, and with fair success, and in my opinion it is the only way by which the hickories, including the pecan, can be multiplied cheaply enough to become of commercial importance.

The small stocks of one or two years old should be taken up in the fall, and then crown grafted any time from December to March in the Northern States, but the earlier the better; then pack away the grafted stocks in moss or soil, in a cool cellar, or heel-in elsewhere, as, for instance, in pits or frames, where they will not be frozen, and yet cool enough to prevent active growth.

In the spring the grafted stocks should be planted out in nursery rows, and deep enough to have the top of the cion just level with the surface after the soil has been settled about it by a shower or heavy rains. The plants must be handled with care, so as not to disturb the cions. Mulching will, of course, be beneficial in dry seasons, and especially if the stocks are set in ordinary well-drained soils. In selecting wood for cions, twigs of the previous season's growth are usually preferred, but it is not necessary, nor is it advisable to discard all except the extreme end of the shoot or that containing a terminal bud, as some writers have advised, to prevent rapid loss of moisture by evaporation, for a drop of wax will seal the end of a cion as thoroughly and effectually as a natural bud; besides, the lower part of the annual twigs is often more firm and really better for grafting than the upper and less sturdy wood, and the lateral buds on it will push just as readily as the terminal one. The cion may be three or four inches long, and contain two or more buds. The sealing of the upper end of a cion that is not protected by a terminal bud is certainly important with all of the hickories, for in this genus of trees the pith is large and continuous, not intersected or cut off by a thin partition of wood at the joints, as seen in many trees, shrubs and vines. This large and continuous pith in the hickories is another reason why the cions succeed best if set below the crown and in or on the fleshy roots having no pith. They may be set on one side, as in splice grafting, or in the center, or in a cleft made for their reception with a sharp knife, then bound with waxed paper, or wrapped with bass, raffia, or other similar material, and afterwards covered with melted wax to exclude air and water from the joints and wounds.

In this mode of grafting hickories it is not necessary to employ the entire root or stock, if it is of large size, for a single cion; for pieces of from six to twelve inches long, containing a few lateral fibers, will answer the purpose, and it will be found, in practice, that these sections of the large fleshy roots contain so much vitality that, if the cions set in them fail to grow, they will throw up sprouts from adventitious buds during the ensuing summer. Almost any fair-sized piece of root left in the ground, when digging up hickory trees large or small, is pretty certain to throw up sprouts, this not only showing their great vitality, but that propagation by root cuttings is perfectly practicable and may be utilized whenever and wherever it may be desirable. The man who attempts to raise hickories from root cuttings must have patience, for very frequently the cuttings will remain apparently dormant in the ground one entire season before the sprouts appear above the surface. I will also add that this slow or retarded germination frequently occurs with the nuts, especially if they have become somewhat dry before planting.

For commercial purposes root-grafting small stock, as described, during the fall and winter, gives promise of being the best and most practicable system of multiplying varieties; but there is much yet to be learned in regard to details, and hundreds of carefully conducted experiments may be necessary to determine the exact time, condition and mode of operation. It may be that very early grafting is better than late, or that we have not, as yet, found the best species for stocks, and that a half-ripened one will be preferable to one fully matured. Neither has it, as yet, been determined what kind of material is best in which to store the grafted roots: sand, soil or sphagnum (moss) from the swamps; or whether they should be kept very moist, or comparatively dry; very cold, or moderately warm. Here is a wide field for experiments, and a most interesting one; for the successful propagation of the hickories by any mode that will insure the perpetuation and rapid multiplication of varieties, means millions of dollars added to the wealth of the country.

=Age of Fruiting.=--We hear much of the precociousness of pecan trees in the South, and many are reported as coming into bearing at the age of six to ten years from the time of planting the nut; but these are probably exceptional instances of early fruiting and not the rule, although in a favorable soil and climate it is to be expected that such trees will push forward more rapidly than under less favorable conditions. Grafted trees will, of course, produce fruit in less time than seedlings, and as this mode of propagation becomes more general, and repeated in a direct ancestral line, the cions for each successive generation of trees being taken from mature or bearing specimens, the precocious and productive habit will eventually become intensified, as it has been in all of our long-cultivated fruit trees propagated by artificial methods. We have so intensified the productiveness of many kinds of cultivated fruits by selection, that it has become more of a fault, than a merit to be encouraged.

The nut trees are amenable to the same physiological laws as other kinds, and in their propagation by grafting with cions from bearing specimens we hasten maturity in the offspring. This has been fully demonstrated in many varieties of the Persian walnuts and European chestnuts. Here in the Northern States we have had so little experience with grafted hickories of any species, that really nothing is yet known as to how they will respond to this mode of propagation, further than that they grow rapidly and give promise of being fruitful. Seedling trees are, as a rule, of slow growth, rarely attaining a bearing age and size under twenty years, and with the shellbarks thirty or forty years usually pass before anything like a crop of nuts is gathered. Something may be gained, in the way of time, by frequent transplantings and pruning, but more by grafting seedlings from old and mature trees. Two grafts of the Hales' hickory commenced bearing at the age of sixteen years.

=Planting for Profit.=--There are, doubtless, many thousands of acres of half-denuded woodlands in almost every State in the Union, both North and South, that could be readily utilized for growing hickory timber, and much of such lands is almost useless for other purposes; but timber culture and forestry is a subject which I have discussed elsewhere,[1] while the object of this work is to aid my readers in producing something that may be utilized as food. When the hundreds and thousands of miles of our public highways are shaded with hickory and other nut-bearing trees of the best species and varieties, it will be time enough to begin planting such kinds elsewhere. As roadside trees they cannot fail to be profitable, largely enhancing the value of adjoining land; for in addition to being equally as ornamental as other kinds, they yield fruit always in demand at remunerative prices. The three species of the hickory and their varieties recommended for cultivation all thrive best in moist soils, but by occasional watering or thorough mulching they will succeed almost anywhere, especially in naturally dry locations.

[Footnote 1: Practical Forestry.]

=Insect Enemies.=--The hickories, as with all other nut-bearing trees, have numerous insect enemies, but these are neither so numerous nor destructive as to seriously interfere with their growth in general, or with their productiveness. Insects may occasionally become exceedingly numerous in certain localities for a few years, then suddenly or slowly disappear; but this we must expect, as one of the coexisting phases of all agricultural pursuits.

Collectively the hickories have no considerable number of destructive insect enemies, but if we count all the species of the various orders that have been found occasionally, or otherwise, feeding on the leaves, buds, fruit, twigs, bark, or boring in the solid wood, they make a very formidable list of names, or about one hundred and seventy-five in all; but fully ninety per cent. of these depredators are scarcely known, except to a few professional entomologists, and unless they become more destructive in the future than they are at present, or have been in years past, nut culturists have little to fear from their depredations. Among the most common species of insects injurious to the hickory, the following may prove most annoying to the cultivator.

THE HICKORY-TWIG GIRDLER (_Oncideres cingulatus._ Say).--A small yellowish-gray beetle, a little less than an inch long, usually appearing in this latitude during August, the females depositing their eggs in the twigs of from a quarter to a half-inch in diameter. On old large trees the loss of a few or many of these is scarcely noticed; but on young seedlings or grafted stock it is quite a different affair, for on such plants the females usually select the leader in preference to the lateral twigs in which to deposit their eggs. The female girdles the twigs for the purpose of providing proper and acceptable food for her progeny; that is, first the green, then the slowly drying, then the perfectly hard, seasoned hickory or whatever kind she may have attacked. Selecting a suitable twig, she rests upon it, usually with head downward (Fig. 70), and with her mandibles cuts out a ring of bark about one-twelfth of an inch wide, and deep enough to reach the firm wood underneath. The place selected for this annular incision may be only a few inches from the terminal bud, or a foot below it, and in some instances she will cut two incisions on the same twig some distance apart, but usually there is only one on a twig. While cutting this incision she will sometimes rest long enough from her labors to deposit an egg in the bark above. The number of eggs she deposits in the twig is probably variable, but three full-grown grubs is the most I have ever found, and the larger proportion examined had only one. This girdling of the twig prevents the flow of sap, and the leaves soon wither and drop off, and the bark and wood shrivel and become hard and dry; but in the meantime the eggs have hatched and the minute grubs have bored their way through the soft bark and reached the pith, feeding in this while acquiring size and strength of jaws that will enable them to consume more solid food later and during the succeeding winter, spring and summer. Some do not reach maturity until the second summer; at least, in this latitude, as I have found after very careful observation and while collecting many hundreds of specimens. I will say, however, that this insect is usually referred to by entomologists as rather rare, and in general it is, but some years ago, in an old clearing near by where there was a great number of young hickory seedlings and sprouts, it was for a season or two very abundant; then it suddenly disappeared, and I have not taken a half-dozen specimens since. The grubs bore out the wood in the infested twig, and in most instances so completely as to leave only a thin shell of the wood or bark, by the time they have reached maturity and are ready to pass into their imago or perfect-winged stage.

This species of twig girdler also attacks the apple, pear, persimmon, elm, and other kinds of trees, and with those like the apple, with a soft and brittle wood, the girdled twigs are frequently broken off by the winds; but this rarely occurs with the hickories, and we can usually find the stumps remaining on the trees years after the beetles have emerged. The only way to keep this pest in check is to cut off and burn the girdled twigs any time before the larvae have reached maturity, and as the girdled dead twigs are readily seen, the gathering is not difficult, from medium-sized trees.

THE PAINTED HICKORY BORER (_Cyllene pictus._ Drury).--This is, perhaps, one of the most common and widely distributed of all the hickory borers, but, so far as my observations have extended, it rarely attacks young or healthy trees of any age; in fact, I have never found it in or about growing trees, but I have seen it, by the thousands, breeding in decaying specimens and in hickory cordwood cut during the winter months and ranked up in shady places. A hickory tree cut down in fall or winter, and left on the ground or cut up into cordwood, is pretty sure to attract this borer early in spring, the females swarming over the bark, depositing their eggs upon it, and by the ensuing autumn the wood will be fairly honeycombed if this insect is at all abundant. The general color of the beetle is black, and the size as shown in Fig. 71. There are three narrow, whitish bands across the top of the thorax, and one slightly broader band at the extreme point of the wing-covers; but the next band is in the form of an inverted V; the point of the [Inverted V] does not quite touch the broad lateral band, as in the closely allied species known as the locust borer (_C. robiniae_), with which it is often confounded; besides, in the latter the markings are of a deep yellow, and not white or of a faint yellowish tinge. The hickory borer always appears in spring, and the locust borer in the fall, not later than September in this part of the country. Below or behind the V-shaped band there are three others, but all broken up into mere dots, and not continuous.

In the South, and especially in Texas, there is a somewhat smaller but closely allied species (_Cyllene crinicornis_) that attacks the pecan tree and its wood in the same way as our common hickory borer, but in the Southern or Southwestern species the bands on the wing-covers are all interrupted or broken up into small white spots or dots. I have no remedy to suggest, further than to cut down old, infested trees, and to haul the wood out into the sun and spread it out where it will quickly dry and become seasoned. If the felled tree and wood is stripped of its bark as soon as cut, the female beetles will not deposit their eggs upon it.

There are other long-horned beetles (_Cerambycidae_) that are occasionally found breeding in the hickories, and among these may be named the Belted Chion (_Chion cinctus_), Tiger Goes (_Goes tigrinus_), Beautiful Goes (_Goes pulchra_), and the Orange Sawyer (_Elaphidion inerme_), but they are usually quite too rare to be considered as very destructive insects.

HICKORY-BARK BORER (_Scolytus 4-spinosus._ Say).--Only once within my memory has this minute but destructive beetle appeared in any considerable numbers in my neighborhood, although I have occasionally received a few specimens from correspondents in various parts of the country, even as far west as the Pacific coast in Washington. This borer is a very small, cylindrical, dark brown beetle, about one-fifth of an inch or less in length, and one-sixteenth in diameter. The hind part of the body is quite blunt (truncate), the males having four short but distinct blunt spines, two on each side, projecting from the hind part of the abdomen, hence the name "4-spinosus." In the females these spines are absent, otherwise they closely resemble the males. These bark borers usually appear here in the Northern States the last of June or early in July, and both sexes attack hickory trees of all species, but appear to prefer the old and nearly mature trees to the young and small with thinner bark. After boring through the bark and reaching the soft cambium layer underneath, upon which these insects feed, the female cuts a vertical channel in this substance, of little over an inch in length.

This burrow is a little larger than the diameter of her body, and along on both sides she deposits her eggs, to the number of ten to thirty, placing about an equal number on each side. When these eggs hatch, the young larvae begin to feed on the soft material by which they are surrounded, making minute burrows at first, and at nearly right angles with the parent one; but as they increase in size they are forced to diverge, those above the center working upward, and those below downward, as shown in Fig. 72. These burrows enlarge as the grubs increase in size, as shown, most of them reaching their full development by the time cold weather sets in, but some do not cease feeding until spring, then pass to the pupal stage, and later to the perfect or beetle form, and from the extreme end of these burrows they bore a hole straight out to the surface, and are then ready to begin the cycle of life again, either on the tree from which they have emerged, or others near by. Some fifteen years ago I noticed that the leaves of some of the old hickory trees on my place were turning yellow prematurely, and upon examination I found the bark perforated with minute holes not larger than small bird shot, indicating the presence of the bark borer under consideration. Seven of the very largest and, presumably, the oldest, appeared to be affected, and these were immediately cut down and stripped of their bark, exposing the little grubs to the air and attacks of insect-eating birds. These trees appeared to have been infested for several years, as there was scarcely a spot on the surface of the wood that had not been scarified with this pest. Since the destruction of these trees I have not been troubled with bark borers, although there are still a number of very old and large hickories thriving in the same grove. The only remedy I can suggest is to cut down infested trees as soon as they are discovered, and also encourage the insect-eating birds to remain in and near the nut groves.

There are several other species of bark borers that occasionally attack hickories, one of these, the _Chramesus icoriae_, Leconte, infests the small twigs, while another, the _Sinoxylon basilare_, say, after boring through the bark, continues its course far into the heartwood, showing a preference for this kind of food instead of the living tissues. These pests, however, are rarely constant, but very erratic, in their attacks, and while they may be rather abundant on a few or many trees a season or two, they then disappear, and not one may be seen for several decades.

THE HICKORY-SHUCK WORM (_Grapholitha caryana._ Fitch).--The parent of this pest is a minute moth of the family _Tortricidae_, the small caterpillars mining and boring the green husks, and sometimes into the immature shell, causing the nuts to wither and drop off prematurely, although an occasional one may reach maturity, even in its scarified condition. This insect appears to be somewhat rare in the East, but very abundant some years in the West, where it is frequently destructive to the thick shellbark hickory and pecan. The first fresh specimens of the Nussbaumer Hybrid pecan nut (referred to on a preceding page) were so badly bored and scarified by this worm when received, that they would have been nearly or quite worthless for either planting or other purposes. As this insect attacks the nuts on the very largest trees in the forest and elsewhere, I cannot suggest any other remedy than to gather the immature and infested nuts as they fall, and burn them, with their contents.

Among the larger Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) there are many species, the caterpillars of which occasionally feed on the leaves of the hickories, but not exclusively; consequently, they cannot be considered as the special enemies of this genus of trees. When they do attack them, it is as much due to accident as design. This is certainly true with the great Luna moth (_Attacus luna_) and the American silk worm (_Telea polyphemus_), and various species of the Catocala, as well as the Tent caterpillar (_Clisiocampa sylvatica_).

There is also a hickory-nut weevil, closely allied to the species infesting the chestnut; and while not quite as large, its habits are similar, and its ravages may be checked by the same or similar means. The grubs bore into the green nuts, causing some to fall before half-grown; others may remain in the nuts until they are ripe and gathered in the autumn; consequently, perforated hickory nuts are not at all rare, even on the stands of venders in our cities.

Bud worms, leaf miners, leaf rollers and plant lice,--and among the latter several gall-making species,--are to be found on the hickories; but with all these natural enemies to contend with, the hickories thrive, grow, and yield their fruits in greater or less abundance. To enumerate, describe and illustrate all the insects known to be enemies of the hickory would require a large volume, but fortunately there are many special works published on the insects injurious to vegetation, and these are readily obtainable by all who may have occasion to consult their pages.