Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin 
Vol. VII St. Louis, Mo., October, 1919 No. 8 
A VARIETY NUT ORCHARD 
A development of greatest importance to the nut industry 
of the United States is the planting this fall of a variety nut 
orchard at the Missouri Botanical Garden. It is the first at- 
tempt in the history of American agriculture to collect in 
one place and systematically test all varieties of native and 
imported nuts which are hardy in the latitude of St. Louis. 
It is particularly appropriate that the Garden be the insti- 
tution to undertake this work, because of the fact that there 
is the greatest collection of wild nuts on the American conti- 
nent within a radius of 200 miles of St. Louis. The lands ad- 
jacent to the Mississippi River and its tributaries contain tens 
of thousands of pecans, hickories, and black walnuts. Already 
from this wonderful collection there have been found a num- 
ber of varieties of nuts that are of great merit, and it only 
remains for the virtues of these to become sufficiently well 
known to lay the foundations of a prosperous and enduring 
industry in Missouri, Kentucky, southern Indiana, Illinois, 
and such other parts of the country as have similar climatic 
conditions. 
In the following list are given the sorts that the initial 
planting will contain, and later such new varieties of promise 
and merit as are discovered will be added to the orchard. 
The trees will be brought to bearing and complete records 
will be kept of their performances. In addition to this, there 
will be placed at the Garden a collection of nuts that are 
grown there and elsewhere, thus making the institution a 
clearing-house of information, which will be of the highest 
value to present and future growers of nut trees. 
While this work was initiated by the Missouri Botanical 
Garden, much of its success will depend upon the cooperation 
of others interested in establishing a nut industry in this 
part of the country. Mr. 8. M. McMurran, in charge of Nut 
Disease Investigation for the U. 8. Department of Agricul- 
ture; Mr. J. Jones, nurseryman, of Lancaster, Pa.; Mr. 
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