452 SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY. 



Woodbourne. Large, smooth, ovate; quality best. Shell quite 

 thick. Pennsylvania. 



In most cases the descriptions given above are from the valuable 

 report of Mr. S. B. Hodges, of the Division of Pomology, on native and 

 introduced nuts. But the varieties selected are actually offered at 

 this time by some of the nurseries of the States mentioned in con- 

 nection with each variety. Up to the present the largest and most 

 perfect nuts in all respects have originated west of the Mississippi, in 

 Missouri and Arkansas, but as yet they have not been propagated so 

 far as is known. 



THE PECAN. 



Several selected varieties of the Pecan have become commercial, 

 and others of special value will soon be planted extensively. As 

 stated in Section 289 a single firm in New York has prepared and 

 marketed for confectionery uses 100,000 pounds in a single season. 

 In a relatively fresh condition it is without doubt the most healthful 

 nut known to commerce. At San Antonio, Texas, invalids with 

 weak stomachs eat the freshly gathered nuts in such quantity as to 

 surprise new-comers, without discomfort and with rapid increase in 

 weight of body. The propagation of the best varieties is outlined in 

 Section 290. The most decided present drawback to commercial 

 culture of the Southern varieties is that the trees are slow in coming 

 into bearing, as it is a -tree of immense size. The writer measured 

 many trees the past winter in Texas, and other parts of the South, 

 that were seven feet in diameter of stem three feet above the ground, 

 with immense spread of top, Avhich bore many bushels of nuts in a 

 season. At their north limit of growth the mature trees are relatively 

 small in size, and they come into bearing as soon as the shellbark 

 hickory nut. By crossing these with the very large thin-shelled 

 varieties of Texas it may be possible to secure as valuable nuts growing 

 on smaller hardier trees. In Iowa the pecan is found on the Mississippi 

 River bottom land up to near the forty-second parallel. Trees 

 grown from nuts of these Northern varieties have made thrifty growth 

 on dry upland considerably north of the forty-second parallel, and 

 these are the varieties that should be used for crossing with the 

 pollen of such varieties as the San Saba of Texas. 



