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AMERICAN POMOEOGICAE SOCIETY 
THE PECAN. 
W. N. Hutt, North Carolina. 
There are very few people outside of the “Sunny South” who have 
ever seen named varieties of the pecan nut. The Northerner who gets his 
idea of pecans from the brick-colored seedlings that he sees so commonly 
used to adulterate mixed nuts, wonders why the Southerner gets so enthusi- 
astic when he dilates on this subject. If, however, he makes a trip down 
South and sees the real pecans, or gets a package of them sent to him he 
wonders why his Southern friend has been so quiet about these splendid 
nuts. The pecan is among nuts, like the peach among fruits; it has every 
variety of quality from the very poorest to the very best. If one had to form 
Ms opinion of peaches from the tough, greenish, tasteless cling-stones 
that crowd the early market he would never believe that the later Craw- 
fords and Elbertas were peaches at all. There is the same great range 
of size and quality with pecans as with peaches. The small painted seed- 
ling pecans which are almost impossible to crack and which have so much 
of astringency and bitterness about them belong to the same horticultural 
and botanical family as the Schleys and San Sabas, which according to 
my way of thinking are the perfection of the nut world. Unfortunately 
the Schleys and other aristocrats of the pecan family have always suffered 
from the disrepute of their “low down” kinsfolk. 
f v 1 Original Territory of the Pecan. 
The pecan tree is a native of the Southern Mississippi, Valley and of 
the river region about the Gulf of Mexico. Throughout this whole area 
pecans grow to great perfection and are the commonest trees found in the 
woods. From this original home nuts have been carried to all parts of 
the South and now the pecan tree is found in great profusion anywhere in 
the Southern States. In geographical distribution the pecan seems to 
thrive wherever cotton does. More recent observation and experience 
show that the pecan is more hardy than cotton and thrives considerably 
north of what is commonly considered the cotton country. It is found 
growing wild in Iowa and Illinois, and recent reports have been made of 
large trees found growing along the Wabash River, as far north as Vincennes, 
Indiana. In Virginia pecan trees are found growing all over the coastal 
region. Many large trees are to be seen that give evidence of having been 
there close to a century. In Virginia two seedling trees have been found 
of such exceptional merit that they are being extensively propagated as 
named varieties. These are the varieties, Mantura and Appomattox. With 
such northern-grown varieties it is probable that the northern limit of 
pecan production will be greatly extended. On the Eastern Shore of Mary- 
land many pecan trees are growing which have been produced from planted 
nuts. The Southern limit of the geographical distribution of the pecan tree 
is not definitely fixed, though it is known to extend into Mexico;. The 
great bulk of commercial seedling pecans is produced about the Gulf 
country of Texas. In the deep alluvial soils of Louisiana the pecan grows 
wild in the forest and is one of the largest and finest timber trees. From 
