I selected branches of the Weschcke hickory trees bearing a profuse amount of pistillate (female) blossoms.  I hand-pollinated these with a special apparatus (the hand-pollen gun described later in this book), using a magnifying glass so that both pollen and blossom could be plainly seen.  In doing this, I found it most practical to wear what jewelers call a “double loupe,” a light, fiber head-gear carrying lenses well-suited to such work.  I treated the marked branches with pollen gathered from the Bridgewater, the Kirtland and the Beaver, all very good pollen-bearers.  I also pollinated branches of the Cedar Rapids variety, which bears little pollen in this locality, with Kirtland pollen.  However, the pollinization of the Cedar Rapids, which involved treating from 35 to 50 pistillate blossoms, resulted in only two mature nuts.

The Weschcke hickory has an abortive staminate bloom so that it must depend on some other variety for pollen.  At the Northern Nut Growers’ Convention, held at Hershey, Pa. in 1941, (where I had the honor of being elected president of that venerable organization and succeeded myself thereafter for the next five years) I mentioned this abortive staminate bloom of my hickory to my friend, Dr. J. W. McKay, Associate Cytologist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture at that time.  He was very interested in this phenomenon and wanted specimens of the abortive catkins for examination.  These were sent to him in the spring of 1942.  I quote from Dr. McKay’s report on his primary findings: 

“I have just made a preliminary examination of the catkins from your hickory tree received last May, and it seems that the individual staminate flower of the catkin produces 4-5 undersized stamens, the anthers of which are devoid of either pollen or pollen-mother-cells.  So far I have made only temporary preparations of the crushed anthers in stain but careful study of these mounts discloses no sign of pollen grains or mother cells, so we may tentatively conclude that no pollen is produced by the tree; in other words it is male-sterile.  The stage at which degeneration of the pollen-forming tissue occurs in the anthers and its nature will have to be determined by means of a longer and more elaborate technique and I will let you know what we find as soon as the results are available.  It may be that pollen-mother-cells are not even formed in the anthers; the small size of these structures and their more or less shriveled appearance lead me to believe that this may be the case.

“So far as I know there is no instance among nut species comparable to that outlined above.  We have two or three cases of male sterility in chestnut but in these no stamens are formed in the individual staminate flower.  In one of the hybrid walnuts that I reported on at the Hershey convention, imperfect pollen grains are formed in the anthers but the latter structures never open, so no pollen is shed.

     “Bear in mind that the above report is preliminary and other
     angles may turn up when permanent mounts are available for study.”