28 The Bulletin. 



nuts with a mixture of the characteristics of the pecan and the 

 bitter nut. The hickories are also cousins of the pecan tree and 

 cross with it, giving rise to a race of trees producing the nuts called 

 hicans. The nuts from isolated pecan trees, producing large nuts, 

 would be more likely to come true, because they would more possibly 

 be fertilized with their own pollen. Even in this case they might 

 by the law of atavism revert to some remote ancestor that bore very 

 small, thick-shelled nuts. Bitter experience from nut plantings in 

 every part of the country show that there is little to be expected from 

 pecan trees produced from selected nuts. The only way to have the 

 pecan come true would be to have it systematically "rogued," as is 

 done in the annual generations of our garden vegetables. A short, 



Fig. 14. — Life-size Illustration of Seedling Pecan and a Nut of the Stuart Variety. 



{Photo by S. B. Shaw.) 



smooth, red carrot will come true from seed, because all individuals 

 have been "rogued" out of the planting, except those that are short, 

 smooth and red. It would take a Methuselah, however, to "rogue" 

 the pecan sufficiently to come true. It is fortunate, though, that 

 plants will not come true, for then we would be unable to get new 

 varieties by plant breeding. For commercial purposes we have a 

 much quicker and surer way, by grafting and budding, that will 

 with unerring accuracy give us thousands of individuals which have 

 the characteristics we desire. 



SEEDLINGS VS. NAMED VARIETIES. 



"What's in a name ?" Everything, when it comes to pecans. The 

 name which distinguishes a variety of pecan from a seedling is the 

 same as the breed name that distinguishes a high-class type of cattle 

 from the "scrub." The name stands for known characteristics ; the 

 seedling stands for nothing. The named variety was originally a 



