The Bulletin. 9 



of alluvial mud. These lands could produce the finest crops of 

 corn and cotton, but the rivers so often claim the crop that their 

 cultivation has been abandoned. Such lands would raise the finest 

 pecan orchards, for they are benefited rather than injured by the 

 overflow. There are thousands of acres of such lands in Eastern 

 North Carolina, now worth nothing, that if planted in budded pecan 

 trees would soon become the most valuable lands in the State. 



The following from The Rural New Yorker gives the experience 

 of Mr. S. H. James, the veteran pecan grower of Louisiana. Mr. 

 James was the first to plant a commercial pecan grove : 



In 1907 we had an overflow from the Mississippi River which covered our 

 plantation for seven whole weeks. It came while the pecan grove was in full 

 leaf. In some portions of the grove the water stood 10 feet deep. What were 

 the results? Only one tree out of more than a thousand died. It seemed to do 

 the others good. Had they been any other kind of fruit or nut trees, with the 

 exception of figs, nearly all would have died. The first Sunday in May last 

 year (1907) there visited this community the worst storm or cyclone of hail 

 and wind ever known in the State of Louisiana. Corn was two feet high in 

 the fields and cotton was chopped to a stand. After the storm was over not a 

 vestige of corn nor cotton, nor any living thing could be found in the fields. 

 The hail came so hard and fast that it unroofed houses, killed all the smaller 

 animals, and the wind blew down oaks and cedars in great abundance and 

 left havoc and destruction on every side. What was the effect on the pecan 

 grove? Every leaf and nut was knocked off the trees (they had been in full 

 leaf for two months), but only two trees were totally destroyed; and now, just 

 one year afterwards, as I look out upon the grove, I can scarcely see any evil 

 effects from the storm. 



Fig. 8 shows a thriving pecan orchard in time of overflow. 



THE PECAN REGION. 



The pecan tree is not a native of North Carolina, though, like 

 many other introduced species, it shows itself to be very much at 

 home in the eastern part of our State. It is a native of the Southern 

 Mississippi Valley, just across the Blue Ridge Mountains from us. 

 In geographical distribution the pecan seems to thrive wherever 

 cotton does. More recent observation and experience show that the 

 pecan is more hardy than cotton and thrives considerably north of 

 what is commonly considered the cotton country. The pecan is found 

 growing wild in Iowa and Illinois, and recent reports have been made 

 of large trees found growing along the Wabash River as far north as 

 Vincennes, Indiana. Last year, at the meeting of the National Nut 

 Growers' Association, a fine collection of native nuts was exhibited 

 from this region. In Virginia pecan trees are found growing all 

 over the coastal region. Many large trees are to be seen that give 

 evidence of having been there close to a century. In Virginia two 

 seedling trees have been found of such exceptional merit that they are 

 being extensively propagated as named varieties. These are the 

 varieties Mantura and Appomattox. With such northern-grown 

 varieties it is probable that the northern limit of pecan production 



