Geography and Coiiwiercial hnportance of the Pecan 5 



ber of native seedling trees, is Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, 

 Mississippi, and Alabama. It is interesting that Georgia and 

 Florida, where the pecan is not indigenous, rank first and 

 second in the planting of commercial orchards to improved 

 varieties, while Texas and Oklahoma, standing first and second 

 in native seedlings, are seventh and eighth in the list of those 

 states planting orchards to improved varieties. 



In the southeastern states, the nuts of the Gulf coast varie- 

 ties decrease in size as the plantings advance northward 

 through the piedmont country and approach the Appalachian 

 highlands. 



The approximate northern limits for the middle belt run 

 from Newport, Ehode Island, southward almost to Asheville, 

 North Carolina, coming around the Cumberland Mountains, 

 bearing almost due north to Louisville, Kentucky, on through 

 Vincennes, Indiana and Bellevue, Illinois, thence northward, 

 crossing the Mississippi at Hannibal, Missouri, and dropping 

 southward around the Ozarks in southern Missouri, and again 

 northward through Moberly and St. Joseph, and on southwest 

 in a line mth Sante Fe, New Mexico. This belt includes north 

 Georgia, north Alabama, north Mississippi, the upper pied- 

 mont South Carolina, piedmont North Carolina, coastal Vir- 

 ginia, as well as Tennessee, western Kentucky, southern Illi- 

 nois, southern Indiana, and southern and middle Missouri. 

 Commercial plantings here and there indicate that the pecan 

 industry could be developed commercially if the proper varie- 

 ties were selected. There is a pressing need for experimental 

 work in breeding better varieties for this region. 



The approximate limits of the northern belt for pecans run 

 from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, almost south to Cumber- 

 land, Maryland, turning northward through Pittsburgh and 



