method for propagating nut trees consists in
facilitating the development of adventitious buds from the roots of some
particularly desirable tree. I do not know at the present time how many
species of nut trees will develop adventitious root buds, as my
experiments have been confined to roots of the shagbark hickory, beech,
and hazel. Segments of roots of these three species when placed in sand,
allowing an inch or so to protrude, will develop adventitious buds if
they are kept warm and moist. Various lengths of root segments have been
employed, ranging from two or three inches up to two or three feet. The
beech and hazel will apparently start adventitious buds from almost any
sort of root segment; but in the shagbark hickory, adventitious buds
started best upon root segments which were more than six inches in
length and more than half an inch in diameter.

Hazels may be propagated in an unusual way from the cuttings of
branches, very much like roses, if these cuttings are placed in sand and
kept warm and moist, although they do not strike nearly so readily as
rose cuttings. I have not given much attention to this experiment in its
practical bearing, but have simply observed that hazel cuttings will
strike roots if they are particularly well cared for.

Experiments with hickories and with walnuts from branch cuttings were a
failure, but they remained alive so well and formed such good callus,
that I believe someone with steam-heated hot-house beds at his disposal
may by experimentation succeed in propagating some of these trees by
cuttings, particularly from herbaceous growth of the year, in August. As
an amateur plant physiologist I foresee what the more scientific plant
physiologists may do for this subject.

One unusual method for propagating nut trees may perhaps be described
more correctly as a method for propagating unusual nut trees, and it
opens a vista of distant horizon in horticulture. The discovery was due
to an accident, and I claim no credit beyond recognizing the
significance of an odd phenomenon.

Three years ago some pistillate chinkapin flowers which had been covered
with paper bags, were left unpollenized because I did not have pollen
enough to go round. The bags were left in place because I was busy with
other things. When these bags were removed at the end of about three
weeks, it was found that the flowers had set a full complement of nuts
without having received pollen. These nuts continued to