PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 

 PECANS. - 



[PLATE VIII.] 



Until quite recent years planters of pecan trees have been greatly 

 handicapped in the selection of varieties because of the limited num- 

 ber of choice sorts which have shown special adaptability to particu- 

 lar localities. In comparison with most other fruits the number of 

 varieties available in the form of budded or grafted trees has been 

 very small, and of most varieties but a small stock was carried by 

 the nurseries. Planters frequently have been satisfied with pecan 

 trees merely because they were " grafted " or " budded," without 

 regard to the variety or its adaptability to local conditions, and not 

 infrequently the varieties have been of a " selected list " made up by 

 unscrupulous tree sellers. Up to the present time from 100 to 150 

 varieties have been propagated, but of these many have already been 

 abandoned and others are of too recent introduction to have demon- 

 strated their value. 



At present there are about 50 sorts of sufficient merit to make it 

 possible to select varieties reasonably certain to succeed in almost 

 any pecan-growing locality. The introduction of new varieties is 

 no longer necessary or advisable unless they possess very evident 

 superiority in productiveness, size, disease resistance, cracking qual- 

 ity, dessert quality, or other important characteristics, or proved 

 adaptability to special conditions. Additional varieties of medium 

 value only burden the lists and cause confusion. With the exception 

 of the Havens^ the varieties here described and illustrated are of spe- 

 cial interest because of their having originated in sections to which 

 the adaptability of few nained sorts has yet been demonstrated. 



BURKETT PECAN/ 

 SYXOXYM : Labadie. 



The original tree of the Burkett pecan was first discovered by Mr. 

 J. -H. Burkett, of Clyde, Tex. It was a wild tree then standing in a 

 crowded location near the banks of Battle Creek, 3 miles east of 

 Putnam, Callahan County, Tex,, on a farm owned at that time by 

 Mr. Y. A. Orr., After observing this tree for three seasons Mr. Bur- 

 kett became so favorably impressed with its bearing habit and the 

 evident merits of the nut that on July 4, 1903, he inserted two buds 

 from it in a pecan sprout grown from a stump cut two years before, 

 which stood in the open some 300 yards from the parent tree and on 

 land then owned by him. This budded tree made a rapid growth, 

 and in 1904 it matured two nuts. From that year the annual crops 



1 The descriptions of pecan varieties which follow have been furnished by Mr. C. A. 

 Reed, scientific assistant. Bureau of Plant Industry. 



