wer, so far as I could discover and which I removed. On one
side of this tree was a bitternut; on the other side a shagbark. This
tree bore a full crop of pignuts, (Hicoria glabra) evidently pollinized
on one side by the bitternut and on the other side by the shagbark These
points are made for the purpose of showing the necessity of covering the
female flowers with bags in our nut tree hybridizations. We must
sprinkle Persian insect powder inside the bags or insects will increase
under protection. When we have placed bags over female flowers, it is
necessary to mark the limb; otherwise, other nuts borne on neighboring
limbs will be mistaken for the hybridized nuts unless we carefully place
a mark about the limb. Copper wire twisted loosely is, I find, the best.
Copper wire carrying a copper tag with the names of the trees which are
crossed is best. If I mark the limb with string or with strong cord I
find there are many ways for its disappearance. Early in the spring the
birds like it so well that they will untie square knots in order to put
it into their nests. Later in the season the squirrels will bite off
these marks made with cords for no other purpose, so far as I know,
except satisfying a love of mischief. Now I am not psychologist enough
to state that this is the reason for the action of the red squirrel, and
can only remember that when I was a boy I used to do things that the red
squirrel now does. (Laughter.) Consequently, on that basis, I traced the
psychology back to plain pure mischief. Red squirrels and white footed
mice must be looked after with great care in our hybridized trees. If
the squirrels cannot get at a nut that is surrounded by wire cloth, they
will cut off the branch and allow it to fall to the ground and then
manage to get it out. White footed mice will make their way through
wire, and mice and squirrels will both manage to bite through wire cloth
unless it is very strong in order to get at the nut. The mere fact of
nuts being protected by wire cloth or in other ways seems to attract the
attention of squirrels. One of my men, a Russian, said, in rather broken
English, "Me try remember which nuts pollinized; no put on wire, no put
on tag, no put on nothing; squirrel see that, see right straight, bite
off one where you put sign for him." (Laughter.) The best way for
keeping squirrels and white footed mice from ascending a tree, I find is
by tacking common tin, slippery smooth tin, around the trunk