HISTORY OP THE PECAN TRUE. 447 



Carolina * * * Also 21 of the Illiuois Nuts ; comijleuting at the No. end ; 

 the piece of a How in my Botanical Garden in which on the — day of — I put 

 Gloucester hiccory Nuts.^ 



We note that Jefferson's description of the plant written in 1781 

 was in part drawn from phmts of two years' growth. A study of 

 his Garden Book under date of March 17, 1791, reveals this entr}': 

 " Planted 200 paccan nuts and seeds of Kentucky coffee." (P. 29.) 

 Pie also records a much larger planting May 2G, 1802. " Also planted 

 a great number of Paccan nuts, in the same rows of those planted 

 the last two j^ears." (P. 30.) This reference to plantings of "the 

 last two 3^cars " seems to refer to unrecorded plantings, including the 

 nuts from Clark, of New Orleans, which might have given him the 

 young trees referred to in his description. He mentions another 

 planting of " 25 paccans " on March 17 and 18, 1812. 



One of the most interesting of the old trees of Germantown, until 

 relatively recent years, was a pecan grown from a nut brought back 

 from the Arkansas country in 1819 or 1820 by Thomas Nuttall. The 

 botanist presented the nut to his friend, Peuben Haines, a man 

 prominent in scientific and agricultural circles in Philadelphia, who 

 in turn gave it to his neighbor. Daniel Pastorius, who planted it. 

 The tree reached a large size and bore fruit.^ This history is taken 

 from a ver}' interesting account of the rare plants of Germantown 

 which presents much historical information in addition to that indi- 

 cated by its title. 



A careful search on the old estates of the eastern coast would in 

 all probability lead to the discovery of still other early plantings 

 which might prove highly interesting.^ 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE PECAN. 



There is perhaps little to be said on this part of the subject but 

 even in early days some indications are seen of coming efforts to im- 

 prove the nut. The recognition of locally well-known nuts of a 

 superior type is directly asserted in Clark's letter of 1799 to Jeffer- 

 son. The perpetuation of this superiority through grafting or bud- 

 ding would have been a valuable advance. On August 2, 1769, Jef- 

 ferson records in his Garden Book that he " inocuhited English 

 walnut buds into stocks of the Black walnut " at his old home. Shad- 

 well ; had his duties left him at Monticello we should perhaps have 

 found him budding pecans at a later date. So far as I have learned, 

 however, this experiment was left for later hands. 



1 Diary of George Washington. Vol. 22 : 1465. 



2 JcUett, Edwin C, Germantown Old nnd New. Its Rare and Notable Plants. 1904 : 71. 



3 Littlepage, Thomas P., Jefferson and Washington — Pecan Planters. American Nut 

 Journal, 6:5, 1917. 



