446 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



Jefferson's good friend, Thouin, the director of the Jardin des 

 Plantes in Paris. 



EARLY CULTIVATION IN AMERICA. 



It is perhaps impossible to state the date of the first planting of 

 this nut in America, and perhaps equally difficult to ascertain who 

 made it. It seems quite possible, however, that the oldest cultivated 

 trees are to be found in Mexico. Onderdonk 1 in 1911 reports seeing 

 pecans growing on irrigated lands at Bustamente, 100 miles beyond 

 Laredo, Texas, which he estimated to have reached an age of 200 

 years. This far antedates all known plantings in the Colonies of 

 the Atlantic coast. 



Among the eastern Colonies precedence seems to belong to Xew 

 York. According to Brendel, 2 William Prince in 1772 planted 30 

 nuts in his nursery at Flushing, Long Island, raising 10 plants; 8 

 going to England at 10 guineas apiece, 2 being kept for reproduction. 



The planting made by Prince did not long anticipate one made by 

 William Hamilton, proprietor of the famous gardens near Phila- 

 delphia, known as the Woodlands. Hamilton, writing to Humphry 

 Marshall, who described this tree so badly, says in a letter dated 

 " The Woodlands, May 3d, 1799," 3 referring to the disastrous effects 

 of a recent heavy frost : 



A tree, too, the only one I had of Juglans Pacane, or Illinois Hickory, which 

 I raised twenty-five years ago from seed, is entirely killed. 



The date of planting of this tree would have been in 1774. 



It is well known that George Washington was an enthusiastic 

 grower of interesting and novel plants, maintaining a special plot 

 of ground for experimental purposes which he often refers to in 

 his diary as " the Botanical Garden." In an entry for March 11, 

 1775, without doubt describing his planting operations for the day, 

 he writes: 



Row next these (white peaches from Phila.) 25 Mississippi Nuts — something 

 like the Pig nut— but longer, thiner shelld and fuller of meat. 4 



This was probably his first planting, since he takes the trouble to 

 describe the nut. This was followed in 1786 by a second record. 

 On— 



Wednesday, 2d (May, 1786), planted 140 seed sent me by Colo. Win. Wash- 

 ington and said by him to be the seed of the large magnolio or Laurel of 



1 Onderdonk, Gilbert, Pomologieal Possibilities of Texas. Bull. 18, Texas Department 

 of Agriculture, Austin, Tex. 1911 : 45. Revised edition. 



a Brendol, Frederick, American Naturalist, 13 : 757, 1879. Quoted by Sargent, C. S., 

 In Silva of North America, VII : 140 ; also by Heiges, S. B.", Nut Culture in the United 

 States. Div. Pomology, U. S. Dept. Agriculture, 1896 : 50. 



8 Darlington, William, Memorials of John Bartram and Humphry Marshall, 1S49 : 580. 



1 Diary of George Washington. J. M. Toner transcript. Vol. 13 : 928. In Manuscripts 

 Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. 



