hickory roots such as the bitternut or the closely related pecan. Both
of these grow rapidly and the bitternut has the additional advantage of
growing farther north and of being transplanted more easily. It has
always been thought that when a good variety of shagbark hickory had
been successfully grafted to bitternut root stocks, orchards of hickory
trees would soon appear. This takes me to my discovery of the variety
now known as the Weschcke hickory, which I have found fulfills the
necessary conditions.

[Illustration: _Shows exceptionally thin shell of Weschcke hickory
variety. Drawing by Wm. Kuehn_]

One fall day in 1926, when I was at the home of a neighboring farmer, he
offered me some mixed hickory nuts he had received from an uncle in
Iowa. As he knew of my interest in nuts, he wanted my opinion of them. I
looked them over and explained that they were no better than little
nutmegs, having very hard shells and a small proportion of inaccessible
meat. To demonstrate this, I cracked some between hammer and flatiron.
My demonstration was conclusive until I hit one nut which almost melted
under the force I was applying. The shape of this nut was enough
different from the others to enable me to pick out a handful like it
from the mixture. I was amazed to see how very thin-shelled and full of
meat they were. Upon my request, this neighbor wrote to his uncle, John
Bailey, of Fayette, Iowa, asking if he knew from which tree such fine
nuts had come. Unfortunately he did not, because the nuts had been
gathered from quite a large area. After corresponding with Mr. Bailey
myself, I decided that I would go there and help him locate the tree,
although it was nearly Christmas and heavy snowfalls which already
covered the ground would make our search more difficult.