59 



PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 407 



shell and form, color, and plumpness of kernel, as well as the external 

 characteristics. In all cases the nuts illustrated are from trees grown 

 in the climatic regions where the varieties originated. 



CENTENNIAL PECAN. 

 [PLATE LVL] 



The original tree of this variety stood on the Anita a plantation of 

 Mr. Amant Bourgeois, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, in 

 St. James Parish, La., from some date early in the nineteenth century 

 until March 14, 1890, when it was destroyed by the disastrous Anita 

 crevasse, which swept away, to the depth of 15 feet, the earth in which 

 it stood. Whether it was. a chance seedling or was grown from 'a 

 planted nut is not known. So far us known, the first effort to perpetu- 

 ate the variety by grafting was made by the late Dr. A. E. Colomb 

 early in the "forties." Not succeeding in this effort, Doctor Colomb 

 later cut scions from the original tree and took them to the late 

 Telesphore J. Roman, owner of Oak Alley plantation, on the east 

 bank of the river, whose slave gardener, Antoine b} T name, succeeded 

 in grafting 16 trees near the mansion and quarters with this variety in 

 the winter of 1846 or 1847. Somewhat later than this Mr. Roman 

 had 110 trees grafted "in the large pasture which was forty arpents 

 from the river" with the same variety, so that by the close of the civil 

 war (1865) there were 126 grafted Centennial trees in bearing on this 

 plantation. The plantation having changed bands shortly after the 

 war. the later plantings of grafted trees were cut down to make way 

 for sugar cane, although they were just reaching their most productive 

 age and the nuts from them were then selling at from $50 to $75 per 

 barrel. 



In 1876, Hubert Bonzano, who then owned Oak Alley, exhibited nuts 

 from these grafted trees at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. 

 He was awarded a diploma based upon an examination by Prof. 

 William H. Brewer, in which the variety was commended for its 

 'remarkably large size, tenderness of shell, and very special 

 excellence." c 



It is not clear as to who first applied the name Centennial to the 

 variety, but so far as ascertained it was first catalogued under that 

 name by the late Richard Frotscher, of New Orleans, in 1885, the 

 propagation of budded and grafted trees of it for sale having been 

 begun about 1882 by William Nelson, who was associated with Mr. 

 Frotscher in the pecan nursery business. 



Personal statement of Emil Bourgeois, Central, La., October, 1902. 



& Letters of Henry J. Roman and Prof. Alce"e Fortier, of New Orleans, son and 

 nephew, respectively, of Telesphore J. Roman, May to August, 1903. 



f U. S. International Exhibition 1876, Reports and Awards. Group VI, Award 

 222, p. 46. Philadelphia, 1877. 



