CHAPTER I 



GEOGRAPHY AXD COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE 

 OF THE PECAN 



The pecan is indigenous only to certain sections of the 

 United States and Mexico. It is not native in any other coun- 

 try in the world. 



In the United States, the species is indigenous throughout 

 most of the valley of the Mississippi and its principal tribu- 

 taries, especially on the lowlands along the river and creek 

 bottoms. Farther west, it is found along most of the important 

 rivers in Texas and Oklahoma. In Mexico, in the northern 

 and central parts, the pecan is native over a considerable 

 area. Very little is known of this section, except that it ex- 

 ports annually from one to four million pounds of inferior 

 pecans into the United States. 



In the main valley of the Mississippi, the pecan is native as 

 far north as Davenport, Iowa ; in the valley of the Ohio as far 

 north as Covington, Kentucky, and in the valley of the Wa- 

 ])ash as far north as Terre Haute, Indiana. In this northern 

 belt is located one of the largest solid blocks of native pecan 

 trees in the United States. It is at the mouth of Green River, 

 on the banks of the Ohio, in Henderson County, Kentucky. 

 There are between 300 and 400 acres of a solid stand of wild 

 pecan trees with only an occasional swamp maple or hack- 

 berry scattered here and there. A number of these trees are 

 sixteen feet in circumference and over 150 feet high. On both 



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