In 1937, I made experimental graftings on native black walnut stocks of the Weschcke No. 4 butternut, a variety I found to be superior to hundreds of other native trees tested.  The grafts grew luxuriantly and in 1940, produced about two pounds of nuts.  These nuts were approximately 30% larger than those on the parent tree.  They cracked well and the kernels were similar to those from the parent tree.  They definitely distinguished themselves, however, by being a free-hulling nut, which is not true of the mother tree nor of most butternuts.  Soon after the nuts had dropped to the ground and were still green, they were hulled and their hulls peeled off like those of the Persian walnut, leaving the nuts clean and free from remnants.  Apparently this phenomenon was a transient one since later crops did not display this free-hulling feature.

I have mentioned, elsewhere, the seedling apricot which came into bearing in St. Paul, and how I obtained grafts before it died during a very cold winter.  I have grafted scions of this apricot on both hybrid and wild plum stocks repeatedly and this apricot now exhibits a material gain in hardiness.  It overgrows the plum stock, but this does not seem to inhibit its bearing, the fruit growing to greater size than that of the mother tree.

These are some of the instances in which I have seen stock exert a definite, and, mainly a beneficial influence on its grafted top.  It may easily be that these are only of a temporary nature and until I have seen them maintained for many more years, I must consider them to be transient effects.

Chapter 19

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS OF SCIONS

Loss of identification markings from my grafted trees has, on occasion, caused me much confusion.  There was one time when I had from six to ten varieties of hickories and their hybrids grafted on wild bitternut hickory stocks, totally lacking in identification.  Although this disconcerted me considerably, I knew of nothing I could do except to wait for the grafts to bear nuts and determine the varieties from these.  As I continued my experimental grafting, I made sure that the tags I used were not only indestructible, but also secured to the grafts in such a way that the action of the wind could not wear them out nor cause them to drop off.

Not long after this had happened, I received from Dr. Deming a shipment of about twenty varieties of hickory scions.  While I was preparing this material for grafting, I noticed that each variety could be readily distinguished by its appearance in general and, specifically, by differences in its leaf scars.  I also noticed markings on the bark, particularly the stomata, which differed with each variety.  Color and stripes added further differentiation.  Although I also found variations in the size and shape of the buds, I later discovered that these do not always remain constant within a variety, but depend somewhat on each season’s growth.  For instance, a second growth sometimes develops during a favorable season with a large number of lateral buds growing out of it like spines.