PIGNUT HICKORY
(Hicoria Glabra)

The name of this tree is unfortunate, although so far as the nuts are concerned, no injustice is done. It is one of the best hickories in the quality of its wood, and also as an ornamental tree. It is likewise abundant in many parts of its range, which extends from Maine to Kansas, Texas, Florida, and throughout most of the territory enclosed by the boundary lines thus delimited.

The name pignut is common in New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota; bitternut in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin; black hickory in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Indiana; broom hickory in Missouri; brown hickory in Mississippi, Delaware, Texas, Tennessee, Minnesota; hardshell in West Virginia; red hickory in Delaware; switch bud hickory in Alabama; and white hickory in New Hampshire and Iowa.

The nuts are generally bitter, but some trees bear fruit which is not very offensive to the taste. The avidity with which swine feed upon it gives the common name. This tree is doubtless confused many times with bitternut, though their differences are enough to distinguish them readily if they grow side by side. As far as the woods of the two species are concerned, there is little occasion to keep them separate. The pignut is a forked tree more frequently than any other species of hickory; and the nuts vary in shape and size more than those of any other. The tree is more remarkable for its variations than for its regularity. In one thing, however, it is pretty constant: the limbs and branches are smooth and clean, hence the botanical name glabra. As a name for this tree, smooth hickory would be preferable to pignut. Trunks attain a height of eighty or ninety feet and a diameter of three or four, but the extreme sizes are rare. The largest specimens are found in the lower Ohio valley, and the species is most common in Missouri and Arkansas. It grows farther south and farther west than any other hickory except pecan. Its southern limit is in Florida and its western in Texas.

The uses of hickory fall into general classes. More is manufactured into vehicles than into any other single class of commodities, but not more than into all other articles combined. The second largest users of hickory are the manufacturers of handles. The third largest demand comes from makers of agricultural implements and farm tools. Large amounts are required for athletic goods, meat smoking, and various miscellaneous purposes. The total amount used yearly in this country, and exported to foreign countries, is not accurately known, but it probably exceeds 500,000,000 feet, board measure. About half of this passes through sawmills in the usual manner, and the other half goes directly from the forest to the factory or to the consumer.

The superiority of American buggies, sulkies, and other light vehicles is due to the hickory in their construction. No other wood equals this in combination of desirable physical properties. Though heavy, it is so strong, tough, and resilient that small amounts suffice, and the weight of the vehicle can be reduced to a lower point, without sacrificing efficiency, than when any other wood is employed. It is preËminently a wood for light vehicles. Oak, ash, maple, and elm answer well enough for heavy wagons where strength is more essential than toughness and elasticity. Hickory is suitable for practically all wooden parts of light vehicles except the body. The slender spokes look like frail dowels, and seem unable to maintain the load, but appearances are deceptive. The bent rims are likewise very slender, but they last better than steel. The shafts and poles with which carriages and carts are equipped will stand severe strains and twists without starting a splinter. The manufacturing of the stock is little less than a fine art. In scarcely any other wood-using industry—probably excepting the making of handles—is the grain so closely watched. Hickory users generally speak of the annual growth rings as the grain. The grain must run straight in spokes, rims, shafts, and poles. If the grain crosses the stick, a break may occur by the simple process of splitting, and the hickory in that case is no more dependable than many other woods.

Handle makers observe the same rule, and must have straight grain. The more slender the handle, the more strictly the rule must be followed. A cross grained golf club handle would fail at the first stroke. An ax handle, if it has cross grain, will last a little longer, but it will speedily split. Many of the best slender handles are of split hickory. The line of cleavage follows the grain, but a saw does not always do so. Heavy handles, like those for picks and sledges, are not so strictly straight grained, because they are made strong enough to stand much more strain than is ever likely to be put on them. Red heartwood is frequently used in handles of that kind. Peavey and canthook handles are generally split from billets, because the grain must be straight. Though they are among the largest and heaviest of handles, breakage must be guarded against with extra care, for the snap of a peavey handle at a critical moment might cost the operator his life by precipitating a skidway of logs upon him.

The hickory which goes into agricultural implements fills many places, among the most important being connecting rods. It is often made into springs to take up or check oscillation. It is used for that purpose as picker sticks in textile mills.

Furniture makers could get along without hickory, and they do not need much. It is oftenest seen in dowels, slender spindles, and the rungs of chairs. The makers of sporting and athletic goods bend it for rackets, hoops, and rims, or make vaulting poles, bats, or trapezes.

Shellbark Hickory (Hicoria laciniosa) is often mistaken for shagbark. The ranges of the two species coincide in part only. Shagbark grows farther east, north and south than shellbark. The latter occupies an island, as it were, inside the shagbark’s range. Shellbark is found from central New York and eastern Pennsylvania, westward to Kansas, and southward to North Carolina and middle Tennessee. The species is at its best in the lower Ohio valley and in Missouri. The largest trees are 120 feet high and three in diameter, and are often free from branches half or two-thirds of the length. The species prefers rich, deep bottom lands, and does not suffer from occasional inundation from overflowing rivers. The average tree is not quite as large as shagbark. The leaves are larger than those of any other hickory, ranging in length from fifteen to twenty-two inches. There are from five to nine leaflets, usually seven. The upper ones are largest, and may be eight or nine inches long and four or five wide. In the autumn the leaflets drop from the petioles which adhere to the branches and furnish means of identifying the tree in winter. The nuts including the hulls are as large as small apples. When ripe, the hulls open and the nuts fall out; but the hulls fall also. The nuts are as large as shagbark nuts, but the two are seldom distinguished in market, though the shagbark’s are a little richer in flavor. The bark’s roughness gives the tree its name. Strips three or four feet long and five or six inches wide curl up at the lower ends—sometimes at both ends—and adhere to the trunk several years. The species has other names. It is known as big shellbark in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas; bottom shellbark in Illinois; western shellbark or simply shellbark in Rhode Island and Kentucky; thick shellbark in South Carolina, Indiana, and Tennessee; kingnut in Tennessee.

The wood weighs 50.53 pounds per cubic foot, and is very hard, strong, tough, and flexible. The heartwood is dark brown, the sapwood nearly white. This hickory usually has less sapwood in proportion to heart than other members of the species; but the wood is not kept separate from the others when it goes to market, and its uses are as extensive as the other hickories’. It is believed by some foresters that shellbark hickory is worth cultivating for its nuts, as it is a vigorous bearer; but little planting has been done. East of the Alleghanies, particularly in Virginia, some planting has been carried out on old plantations for ornamental purposes. On account of its long taproot, the tree is difficult to transplant, and the nuts should be planted where the trees are expected to remain.