THE LATE HENRY HALES AS A NUT CULTURIST

H. W. Hales, New Jersey

About 1876 he and the celebrated writer and agriculturist, Andrew S. Puller, made extensive experiments with the large English filbert,—mostly of the Kentish cob varieties. These proved unadapted to the climate as the trees seemed to run all to growth and bore very few nuts. About this time, also, very extensive plans were laid to propagate by grafting the Hales Paper Shell Hickory. There is probably no more difficult tree in existence to graft than the hickory as, owing to the extreme hardness and close grain of the wood there is always an uncertainty about their uniting permanently, consequently the percentage of perfect trees was always small. Mr. Hales tried all kinds and methods of grafting, some were done on stocks that stood naturally in the fields, others were grafted in greenhouses, then again, others were tried in frames or sashes, and large numbers were grown in pots, and success was only attained after years of time and thousands of dollars were spent. Mr. Hales was also an enthusiastic grower of the English or European walnut and one tree which grew on his farm at Ridgewood was grown from seed given him by ex-Mayor Daniel F. Tieman of New York City many years ago.

Japanese walnuts were also grown on the farm at Ridgewood and some of these are now bearing. A large number of Japanese chestnuts were planted some years ago, and while these bore heavily for a short time they nearly all succumbed to the chestnut blight. There is some difference of opinion among nut growers on the subject, but Mr. Hales was always of the opinion that the chestnut blight was introduced into this country with the Japanese trees, and that when the Japanese trees were gone the disease then spread to the native trees. The Hales Paper Shell Hickory, it may be remarked, still holds the palm as being the largest and thinnest shell nut, and it was only by the most persistent and painstaking efforts that Mr. Hales succeeded in propagating them at all. A large number of chestnuts were grown by Mr. Hales, such as the Numbo and other varieties. Some of these were said to be purely American varieties and others hybrids, or crosses. All of the hybrid varieties seemed to lack the hardy constitution of the American and although some of the nuts were very large he did not succeed with them in the long run as well as with the native varieties. Pecans of all kinds were tried by him and choice specimens were obtained from all parts of the country. Like the hickories these were grown and grafted in different ways and the percentage of good results was always much larger than the hickories. Grafting the hickory on the pecan was of course tried, and this proved one of the best ways of propagating the hickory. Everything that he could possibly think of or do was brought to bear in his efforts at nut culture and it is some satisfaction to know that many nut lovers will have the benefit of his work and efforts, long years after he has passed away, the hickory especially being a very slow growing and long lived tree.