LUTHER BURBANK 
Such a root system prepares the tree for the 
strong growth that characterizes it later; but a 
seedling that makes only a few inches of growth 
in the first season is a rather discouraging plant 
from the standpoint of the cultivator. Doubtless 
the pecan may be induced to change its habit in 
this regard by hybridizing. The example of the 
hybrid walnuts may be cited as showing that a 
tree that is ordinarily slow of growth may be made 
to take on the habit of very rapid growth without 
relinquishing any of its other characteristics of 
hardiness and the production of valuable timber. 
The case of the Royal walnut shows also that 
the tree that thus becomes a rapid grower may 
also have the habit of enormous productivity. 
If the pecan could similarly be stimulated to 
increased rapidity of growth, and to a proportion- 
ate capacity for nut bearing, this tree would be a 
fortune-maker for the orchardist. And there is no 
obvious reason why the pecan should not have the 
same possibilities of development that have been 
demonstrated to be part of the endowment of its 
not very distant relative, the walnut. 
FILBERTS AND HAZELNUTS 
There is yet another native American nut as 
hardy and as widespread as the hickory, that has 
been even more persistently neglected. This is the 
familiar hazelnut. 
[146} 
