i;, 



PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 319 



slender grower, with small narrow leaves with red markings on their 

 stems. It blooms profusely, but rarely sets more than 2 or 3 nuts to 

 the cluster and is therefore considered but moderately productive, 

 though a regular bearer of fair crops. It is reported much easier to 

 bud than either San Saba or Sovereign. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Size large, averaging 45 to 50 nuts per pound ; form broad oblong, 

 compressed, with flat base and blunt quadrangular apex; surface 

 rather smooth, but considerably ridged, especially toward apex; 

 color bright, brownish, with a few scattered brownish splashes 

 toward apex; shell medium in thickness with rather thick but soft 

 partitions, cracking quite easily; kernel broad, flat, plump, smooth, 

 releasing the kernel easily, darker than Sovereign or San Saba, but 

 exceptionally attractive for confectioner's use on cakes or candies; 

 texture rather coarser than the above-named varieties, but decidedly 

 finer than the average commercial pecan; flavor mild, pleasant; 

 quality good. The specimens illustrated on Plate XXXVI, figure 4, 

 were grown by Mr. E. E. Risien, Rescue, Tex. 



This variety is especially commended by Mr. E. W. Kirkpatrick, 

 who has given much attention to the examination of Texas pecans, 

 and is considered worthy of testing in the pecan districts from that 



State westward. 



MANTURA PECAN. 



So few of the pecan varieties yet found worthy of naming have 

 originated north of the cotton belt that the discovery of a tree bear- 

 ing good crops of nuts of fair size and good quality regularly as 

 far north as Virginia appears worthy of special note. Such a one 

 the Mantura appears to be. The original tree of this variety stands 

 on the homestead of that name about 5 miles from the James River, 

 in Surry County, Va. a The tree is one of four grown from nuts 

 planted by Mrs. Wilson, mother of Mr. W. P. Wilson, Fergussons 

 Wharf, Va., the present owner, about 1863. The nuts planted came 

 from a tree still standing at Surry, about 9 miles distant. The 

 Mantura tree is about 11 feet in circumference and 80 to 90 feet 

 high, with a symmetrical spread of top. Up to 1907 it had not 

 missed a crop for fifteen or twenty years, the crop for the previous 

 ten years having averaged 100 pounds and for several years 150 to 

 275 pounds. Like practically all pecans in the Eastern States the 

 crop of 1907 was very light, owing probably to late frosts and wet 

 weather in spring. The variety attracted the attention of Mr. W. N. 

 Roper, who named it Mantura in 1906 and began its propagation. 

 It was described and illustrated by Hume under that name in 1906. 6 



Letter of W. N. Roper, Petersburg, Va., June 1, 1906. 

 6 The Pecan and Its Culture, 1906, p. 44. 



