.
Seemingly my locality ought to yield as many, perhaps more, exceptional
hickory specimens than many could. Here, or near here, the pecan of the
south had reached its northernmost trek. Here also was the shagbark,
shellbark, bitternut. And uniformity here should have more chance of a
knockout. A riddance of sameness. Hazelnuts conceded no such diversity
to help nature make freaks. In the hickory field was alteration, hope,
and chance.

In the assemblage of varieties there is given opportunity for crosses
that nature occasionally delves into, and in the additional eccentric
types getting mixed, tending to offer in rare instances special merit.
We have then through mixture, not that fixedness that usually stands in
the way, but a getting away from set types where once in thousands of
offerings a more useful specimen is made, one nature herself cannot
handle to our advantage, but for which we should have our eyes open, and
make use of when chance comes our way.

Just two years ago tomorrow I came upon what to me was an eye feast. A
half grown hickory tree whose top-most limbs bent as in rare instances
do limbs when heavily laden with sleet. And the nuts were of good size
for shagbarks. With the shucks off there were forty-two pounds of them.
They proved to be quite good crackers. I sent a sample to Dr. Deming and
he very considerately gave them the name Anthony. From the shape of the
nut, I believe it has a trace of the bitternut hickory in its make-up.
Mr. Reed has likewise expressed such an opinion in writing me regarding
it. This foreign blood tinge gives it, I believe, its jump in size and
its rather attractive form, also I think, a bit lessening in quality.
While we would like the very highest quality in our nuts, it is
conceivable that it may be advisable to do with them as is done with
peaches. Take the Elberta, with its many good traits, even though it
does fail somewhat in quality.

Having found this nut tree just two years ago hardly gives time enough
for adequate judgement of its merits. With something like three-fourths
of an inch of rain this year, from sometime in March to the seventeenth
of June, none of our crops can be judged by their performance. Skipping
last year, except for a very few nuts, this hickory came out this season
heavy with bloom. I was watching it at blooming time. On May 23 I
brought home from it a bit of bloom, laid it on a paper and the next
morning it had shed its pollen. The next m