Altogether I have grafted about 70 varieties of hickory and its hybrids on bitternut stocks in my attempts to increase the number of varieties of cultured hickory trees in the North.  Most of those I worked with were compatible with the bitternut stock, but a few, perhaps a dozen, have indicated that they would rather not live on the bitternut and have died, either from incompatibility or winter-killing.  Yet as a root system, the bitternut is the hardiest and easiest to transplant of any of the hickories and for these reasons it makes an ideal stock for the amateur nut-grower to use.  I did try, in 1926, to grow some shagbark hickory stocks, which would be more compatible with those varieties I could not get started on bitternut.  I planted half a bushel of shagbark hickory nuts from Iowa, but although they sprouted nicely, they were not sufficiently hardy and were winter-killed so severely that, after twelve years, the largest was not more than a foot high, nor thicker than a lead pencil.  Some of these, about 50, were transplanted into the orchard and in other favorable locations.  The largest of these, in 1952, is about 4 inches in diameter, 1-foot off the ground, and about 15 feet high.  I have not grafted any yet and only one has borne any seedling nuts so far.  I am now reconciled to using my native bitternut trees for most of my stock in spite of some disadvantages.  A list of successfully grafted varieties is appended, and indicates to what extent this stock is a universal root stock for most of the hickories and their hybrids.  A successful union, however, and long life, does not mean that good bearing habits will be established, since most of these trees grow in the woods in dense shade and poor surroundings.  Some varieties have not borne many nuts, and some not at all.  The following scions were cut this fall (in 1952) from successfully grafted trees deep in the woods: 

Bixby hiccan            (pecan by shellbark)     grafted in 1938
Burlington hiccan       (pecan by shellbark)     grafted in 1938
Green Bay hiccan        (pecan by shellbark)     grafted in 1938
Des Moines hiccan       (pecan by shellbark)     grafted in 1938
Burton hiccan           (pecan by shellbark)     grafted in 1939
McAlester hiccan        (pecan by shellbark)     grafted in 1938
Anthony                     Shagbark hickory     grafted in 1938
Barnes                Shagbark by mocker nut     grafted in 1938
Brill                       Shagbark hickory     grafted in 1936
Brooks                      Shagbark hickory     grafted in 1938
Camp No. 2                  Shagbark hickory     grafted in 1938 (?)
Deveaux                     Shagbark hickory     grafted in 1936
Fox                         Shagbark hickory     grafted in 1939
Glover                      Shagbark hickory     grafted in 1936
Gobble                      Shagbark hickory     grafted in 1940
Hand                        Shagbark hickory     grafted in 1939
Harman                      Shagbark hickory     grafted in 1939