90 LUTHER BURBANK 



of the Gulf of Mexico. It is obviously desirable 

 that so valuable a nut should be adapted to 

 growth in wider territories. 



The fact that the pecan will hybridize with the 

 hardy hickory obviously points the way to the 

 method through which this end may be attained. 



The peculiarity of the hickory and pecan that 

 is associated with their long life and slow growth, 

 is the fact that during their first year the seed- 

 lings make perhaps 99 per cent of their growth 

 under ground. They produce enormous roots 

 before they make any appreciable growth above 

 ground. 



It is not unusual to find pecan seedlings an 

 inch high with roots from four to six feet in 

 length, and an inch in diameter at the widest 

 part. 



Such a root system prepares the tree for the 

 strong growth that characterizes it later; but a 

 seedling that makes only a few inches of growth 

 in the first season is a rather discouraging plant 

 from the standpoint of the cultivator. Doubtless 

 the pecan may be induced to change its habit in 

 this regard by hybridizing. The example of the 

 hybrid walnuts may be cited as showing that a 

 tree that is ordinarily slow of growth may be 

 made to take on the habit of very rapid growth 

 without relinquishing any of its other character- 



