The thin-shelled shagbark hickory is a nut that is coming more and more into favor and is well worthy of propagation. The first shagbark recognized as a distinct variety was the "Hales," located and named by Henry Hales of Ridgwood, N. J., about 1874. This is a very large, attractive, thin-shelled nut, but has been somewhat superseded by other and superior shagbarks. Dr. Robert T. Morris of New York has been making a systematic search for several years for trees bearing shagbarks of high quality and merit, and has been very successful in bringing a number of such nuts to public attention, including the "Taylor" and "Cook." The "Swaim" from South Bend, Ind., is an excellent shagbark; the "Weiker," from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; the "Kirtland," from New England; the "Rice," from Illinois; and another very superior and fine shagbark from northern Kentucky which was brought to public attention by R. L. McCoy of Lake, Ind.
Throughout the whole north are tens of thousands of seedling black walnuts, many of which are of excellent quality, but, so far as is known, there are but two recognized varieties, the "Thomas," introduced during the eighties and propagated to a limited extent, and another from Lamont, Mich.
The butternut is also quite common in much of the same territory as is the black walnut and even in regions farther north, but, so far as I have knowledge, not a single variety has been named.
Seedlings of two species of Japanese walnuts are quite common along the Atlantic Coast and as far inland as the Mississippi River. They are also grown on the Pacific Coast to some extent, but apparently no varieties have been recognized.
Another nut which is confused with the Japanese walnut is botanically known as Juglans Mandshurica. In character of growth the tree quite resembles the Japanese species, but the nut resembles more our American butternut and sometimes they are confused. A short time ago a gentleman in New Jersey who had planted some nuts of the Japanese varieties later cut down the mature trees because he thought they were American butternuts.
It is never safe to use the term "hazel" without explaining that it correctly applies also to the species brought from Europe and more commonly called filberts. According to the late Mr. Fuller, the Germans discriminated between hazels and filberts entirely by the shape of the husk. A nut having a husk which extended and came together beyond the end of the nut was called filbert, meaning beard. Those having shorter and more open husks, so that the nut protruded, were called hazels after the German word "hassel,"--hood, in English. It will readily be seen that once the nuts were separated from the husks, it would be impossible by their classification to determine whether they were hazels or filberts. The Americans generally accept the use of the term hazel to apply to both the American and European species.