LUTHER BURBANK 
One improvement that might probably be 
secured without great difficulty is the introduction 
of the quality of hardiness, so that the pecan might 
be cultivated farther to the north. At present the 
pecan does not produce profitably as a rule, even 
in the coast counties of California, as the nights are 
too cool, thus making the season too short for the 
pecan to ripen its fruit. About Vacaville they 
thrive much better, and the Sacramento and San 
Joaquin Valleys, where the nights are very warm, 
there is as good prospect of growing the pecan 
profitably as anywhere else in the world. But in 
the main the cultivation of this nut has hitherto 
been restricted to the region of the Gulf of Mexico. 
It is obviously desirable that so valuable a nut 
should be adapted to growth in wider territories. 
The fact that the pecan will hybridize with the 
hardy hickory obviously points the way to the 
method through which this end may be attained. 
The peculiarity of the hickory and pecan that 
is associated with their long life and slow growth, 
is the fact that during their first year the. seedlings 
make perhaps 99 per cent. of their growth under 
ground. They produce enormous roots before they 
make any appreciable growth above ground. 
It is nothing unusual to find pecan seedlings 
an inch high with roots from four to six feet in 
length, and an inch in diameter at the widest part. 
[144] 
