91 



mouth water it is when all his schoolmates are eating pecans at recess 

 time^ and he hasn't any. At that time if he has a chance to slip off 

 under a pecan tree and steal pecans and resists the temptation, he can 

 safely be trusted to any position in future life without bond. 



It was during my early boyhood days that I learned, by watching 

 tlie blue-jaj^s and crows, to know which were the earliest ripening 

 trees. These birds are also good judges of the shell and will be found 

 working mostly on the trees bearing the thin shell nuts. 



I might say here that my first school days were spent in the same 

 school building with our now very enthusiastic and valuable member, 

 Hon. T. P. Littlej^age, in Enterprise, Indiana, where a session of the 

 1921' convention was held. 



A number of years later, in 1910, ]\Ir. Littlepage made a trip 

 back to Enterprise and it was during a conversation there that he in- 

 terested me in this line I am now following, searching for and pro- 

 pagating the best northern varieties of pecans. It is very largely due 

 to his encouragement and assistance all along that I have been able 

 to continue it. The public will never know how much valuable time 

 and money Mr. Littlepage has spent in this cause that it might be a 

 success, and had it not been for him the Indiana pecan would not be 

 known today as it is. 



Until 1910 only two of the now named varieties were known, the 

 Indiana and Busseron, but Mr. Littlepage had heard of some good ones 

 on Greenriver and in Posey County and took me with him on these 

 trips, at which time the Major, Greenriver and Hoosier parent trees 

 were located, though the Hoosier was propagated only for a year or 

 two. 



From that time on I became a real pecan enthusiast, as before I 

 had only known the merits of the trees in this immediate vicinity. 

 Since then I have been in almost every pecan grove of any consequence 

 along the Ohio, Wabash, and Green river within fifty miles of Evans- 

 ville. and others along the lower Ohio and on the Mississippi river. 



For several years there have been propagated ten varieties (in- 

 cluding the McAllister hickan) whose parent trees grow in the Evans- 

 ville territory, and it is safe to say there are other fine trees in this 

 section not yet located. 



