This system of testing out seedlings long before
they have reached a size sufficient to bear on their own roots is
applicable to all of the species of nut trees and is one way that the
plant breeder can hurry up his testing for varieties after making
crosses and obtaining young plants.
[Illustration: _Natural size Heartnut. Photo 10/26/38 by C. Weschcke.
Gellatly variety._]
Beechnut
The beechnut, Fagus ferruginea, belonging to the oak family, is one of
the giants of the forest, growing to great size and age. Even very old
beech trees have smooth bark and this, in earlier and more rustic days,
was much used for the romantic carving of lovers' names, as scars still
visible on such ancient trees testify. The wood itself is dense and
hard, even more so than hard maple, and is considered good lumber.
Beechnut is one of the few nut trees with a more shallow and ramified
root system as contrasted with that of most, which, as in the oak,
walnut and hickory, is a tap root system. This fact suggests that in
those localities where beeches grow wild, grafts made on such trees, and
transplanted, would survive and grow well.
Perhaps one of the reasons why very little propagation is done with
beeches is that no outstanding variety has ever been discovered.
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