131 



tliat wliile ,1 few of the most severe!}^ injured trees had succumbed, the 

 aj)j)arent condition of the majority was greatly improved. In the ex- 

 perimental tract 6 per cent were dead, 13.50 per cent in doubtful 

 condition, and 80.25 per cent were apparently in good condition. Of 

 the trees in outside tracts, the percentage dead, doubtful and appar- 

 ently sound were 2.80, 9.008 and 87.42, respectively. 



The lesson of present importance from this narrative is tliat afford- 

 ed by the illustration not only of the ease with which the matter alj^ but 

 escaped the attention of a careful grower but of the difficulty of even 

 impressing upon him the full gravity of the situation. In spite of a 

 prejudice which he conceded was in his mind, when he first inspected 

 the trees on April 17. he underestimated the number affected l)y from 

 one-third to one-half. 



This grower was not alone in his failure to detect e\idence of winter 

 injury as was subsequently proven by the negative replies to a gen- 

 eral iiifiiiiry to growers in many sections sent out in INIay, together with 

 iiunierous reports of severe injury received during June and early 

 .Inly. The fact is that winter injury was more or less general in the 

 pecan orchards of much of the South. Had it been possible to observe 

 further, it is highly probable that a direct relation would have been 

 found between this damage and the lightness in the set of the crop of 

 nuts in 1921 over the general pecan district. 



Other instances of damages to nut trees which have largely escaped 

 notice might be cited, but these will perhaps be suff'icient to call similar 

 cases to the minds of other observers. Of particular interest in the 

 iioitheni part of the country are specific instances of the behavior of 

 indi\idual six-cies and their varieties with reference to ability to with- 

 stand local climatic conditions. To cite a few: Mr. E. A. Riehl, of 

 Godfrey. 111.. 8 miles from Alton, reports that during his 60 years of 

 residence on a high bluff overlooking ^the Mississippi, the pecan trees in 

 the river bottoms of the immediate neighborhood have fruited with 

 exceeding irregularity. A correspondent from Evansville, who cleared 

 200 acres of forest land along the Ohio of all growth other than pecan, 

 reports that the yields have been disappointing. F. W. McReynolds 

 of Washington, D. C. has 50 or more grafted trees now 8 or 10 years 

 old, 10 miles north of the District, which, although in otherwise thrifty 

 condition, have not fruited. 



T. P. Littlepage of Washington, D. C, has some 30 acres of pecan 

 trees, also grafted, on his farm near Bowie, Md., which have borne 



