8 Pecan-Growing 



in which the altitude is high, from 1,500 to 2,000 feet above 

 the sea level, and the rainfall low, from 18 to 25 inches, the 

 tree is not so tall and the top is more spreading; the bark is 

 rough, the branches are more numerous, slender and willowy, 

 and the foliage is a light green color. As the altitude increases 

 and the rainfall decreases, a larger percentage of the trees 

 produce annual crops of nuts. The nuts are larger and the 

 crop failures are less frequent until the altitude becomes over 

 2,000 feet and the rainfall less than 20 inches, when the crops 

 become less certain and the nuts smaller. It is evident that, 

 as far as the native trees are concerned, the most regular and 

 the largest yields and the best nuts are secured where the 

 altitude is from 1,000 to 1,800 feet, with the annual rainfall 

 from 20 to 30 inches. 



Eecords compiled over a series of years show that the 

 size of the nut is markedly influenced by the seasonal 

 conditions. The size and weight of Texas native seedlings 

 are often reduced to one-fourth or one-third of normal by 

 protracted drought. Dry weather affected very similarly a 

 number of named varieties that were under observation in 

 Georgia. In addition to reducing the size of the nuts, ex- 

 tremely dry weather has a tendency to shorten the axes or 

 length out of proportion to the thickness of the nut. Records 

 from the Georgia Experiment Station show that the growing 

 seasons of 1911 and 1914 were extremely dry, while those of 

 1912 and 1913 were normally moist. As a result, the axes 

 of the nuts grown during the two dry years were much shorter 

 than those of the pecans yielded in the normally moist seasons 

 on the same trees. The thickness of the nuts was not mate- 

 rially affected by dry weather. This seasonal influence was 



