I presume you
mean species, is that correct?--will grow on fairly wet soil? I think
Mr. Ward has a little bit of black soil in that good, old state of
Indiana.

MR. SALZER: I mean soil that doesn't dry well in the spring. I have one
spot that's too wet for chestnuts.

MR. WARD: I wouldn't put any hickory nuts on it. You are going to find
it is going to be very difficult for if the soil is the least bit heavy
or wet, the hickory nut does not do well at all. In the Wabash bottoms
there is a lot of this black soil that is overflowed every year, and
some of the finest hickory nuts and some of the finest pecans that you
can find in the country are there. Sometimes I have seen water marks on
those hickory trees several feet from the ground in the spring of the
year and sometimes in the summer, yet they come through with a good crop
of nuts. Underneath it is a strata of gravel so that the soil drains out
in a hurry.

MR. SALZER: This has subsoil drainage.

MR. WARD: The soil around Rochester is very heavy like what we call
slashland type of soil here in Indiana, and where this occurs we find
that the hickory nut does very, very poorly. I wouldn't advise putting
them on such soils. The black walnut will grow a lot better in places
like that.

MR. GERARDI: In Illinois we have that deep, black soil and we just call
it plain gumbo. It's all filled-in soil, and I never have reached the
bottom. It's at least 20 feet thick. And these swamp hickories--I think
Reed was the one that called them swamp hickories--thrive there. They
can be two months under water six foot deep, and still bear wonderful
crops. You can get a wagon load of them in that mucky soil.

MR. CALDWELL: The hickory in New York State which will stand the most
moist conditions is the bitternut hickory, and with that root stock you
may be able to get some of the others through. The shagbark will
withstand considerable moisture if it has deep soil. The bitternut does
well on shallow soil or the soil that is made shallow by high water.

MR. O'ROURKE: The bitternut, then, will survive wet conditions. This is
of interest as far as root stocks are concerned. I am wondering if
anyone would like to report on the ability of the pecan to take wet soil
conditions.

MR. WILKINSON: They will turn out all right if they have dry feet during
the summer months, but they will not stand wet feet all summer.

MR. O'ROURKE: Will the bitternut do better, or would the mockernut?