PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 383 



great care to secure varieties adapted to the conditions of the section 

 where they are to be planted. While trees of varieties that prove 

 unsuited to conditions can be top-worked and converted into other 

 sorts, the expense of such conversion and the time required to accom- 

 plish it render it important that the necessity for such top budding 

 and grafting be avoided if possible. Careful investigation of the 

 behavior of varieties already growing in a locality or under conditions 

 as similar as can be found is the only safe course for the pecan planter 

 in selecting his varieties. While nothing short of actual test of a 

 variety in the locality can be considered sufficient, in the absence of 

 such test the grower will do well to confine his commercial plantings 

 to varieties that have originated in his own region, rather than to 

 rely on sorts that have been developed under radically different 

 climatic conditions. 



BRADLEY PECAN. 



The original tree of this variety was grown from a Frotscher pecan 

 planted about 1886 at Macclenny, Fla., by Mr. D. C. Griffing. It bore 

 its first nuts in 1892, and its precocity and productiveness, coupled 

 with its early ripening season, caused its owners to begin the propaga- 

 tion of it about 1896. It was catalogued and introduced in 1898 by 

 the Griffing Brothers Company. The original tree has been heavily 

 cut for scions, so that no very accurate determination of its produc- 

 tiveness has been possible, but it is reported to have borne well and 

 regularly up to 1907, when it yielded nearly 200 pounds of nuts. 

 Since then the crop has been light. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Form long, oval to cylindrical, somewhat compressed, with a 

 rather long, pointed base and long, angular apex; surface smooth; 

 size medium, 65 to 80 nuts to the pound; color bright grayish brown 

 with dark reddish black markings near apex ; shell thin, rather hard, 

 cracking easily and releasing kernel readily; kernel brownish, plump, 

 considerably corrugated and broadly grooved ; texture firm, compact ; 

 flavor sweet ; quality very good. Season early. 



The tree resembles its parent, the Frotscher, considerably , is a vigor- 

 ous grower, of erratic, spreading habit, with narrow, thin foliage and 

 carrying its fruit spurs well through th$ tree. The young wood is 

 smooth and brown, with numerous large, light dots. 



Under favorable conditions the young trees are very vigorous and 

 productive, some in Thomasville, Ga., about 7 years old having been 

 observed in 1909 breaking down with their load of nuts. 



The specimens illustrated in Plate XXXVI were grown by "Mr. 

 R. S. Heeth, Thomasville, Ga. 



a Reported by Mr. C. A. Reed, Special Agent, September, 1909. 



