ON NUT GROWING 



of them for anything but a pecan. Yet the indi- 

 viduality the personality of each tree is re- 

 vealed in the average character as to size, shape, 

 and peculiarities of shell and kernel, of its fruit, 

 and also as to great difference in productiveness 

 and earliness or lateness of bearing. 



THE VARIETIES OF PECAN NUTS 



Of course such individuality is precisely what 

 we have become accustomed to expect in orchard 

 fruits and other plants under cultivation. But 

 until recently it has not been generally understood 

 that such diversity is commonly to be found among 

 wild plants. So the case of the pecan furnishes an 

 interesting illustration of the variation of plants 

 in the wild state. The pecan trees that show these 

 individual variations are precisely like the culti- 

 vated varieties of orchard fruits in that they do 

 not breed true from seed. Doubtless it might be 

 possible to develop true botanical varieties from 

 each of them by selective breeding, but this is not 

 necessary any more than in the case of orchard 

 fruits. For, like other trees, the pecan may be 

 propagated by grafting or budding. 



Nothing more is necessary than to make cut- 

 tings of twigs or buds from the parent stock, graft- 

 ing these as cions on an ordinary pecan stock, to 

 produce new trees in indefinite numbers, all of 

 which retain the precise quality of the parent. 



[27] 



