124 
AMERICAN POMOEOGICAE SOCIETY 
The largest crop of pecans I have seen was raised last year by Mr. 
CteneSs Taylor of Faison, N. C. From a single tree somewhere about thirty- 
five years of age Mr. Taylor sold six hundred and fifty pounds of nuts. 
The tree was a chance seedling, the nuts not being of large size but the 
crop brought the owner ninety dollars. iMr. Taylor has a family of nine 
children and it is likely that with the aid of the squirrels they accounted 
far another hundred pounds of nuts that did not find their way to market. 
On the test farms of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture there 
are twenty-seven named varieties of pecans under test. The third year 
from setting three varieties produced a few nuts. The fourth season there 
was an increased number of nuts on the trees that bore last year and many 
stew varieties came into bearing. The named varieties in addition to the 
mm and quality of the nuts they produce have been propagated largely on 
account of their habits of early bearing. 
Soils and Sites for the Pecan Tree. 
In the matter of soils the pecan is almost as cosmopolitan as the straw- 
berry. It is found growing and thriving on almost every type of soil in 
the South. In its native habitat in the Mississippi Valley it is found on 
deep, rich, alluvial soils. It is on such soils that the trees make their 
greatest growth, though they are apt to be slow in coming into bearing. 
At Mound, Louisiana, is a veteran pecan tree which measures 107 feet 
Mgh and 19 feet in circumference at shoulder height. This tree is still In 
vigorous condition and bears large crops of nuts although the tree is con- 
siderably over a century old. 
While the pecan is native to alluvial soils it is found by trial that it 
will do well on loam soils, or light sandy soils and also on clay soils. It 
seems to be much more particular about its subsoil requirement than it is 
of the surface soil. This is doubtless on account of its enormous develop- 
ment of taproot. On one or two year old seedlings the taproot is larger and 
thicker than the trunk of the tree. If the subsoil is hard and impervious 
it is impossible for the taproot to get down to water and without this it 
seems impossible to grow pecan trees. On the loosest sandy soils pecan 
trees can be made to do well if the subsoil conditions are right, while on 
rich fertile loams the tree will not do v/ell if there is a hardpan close to 
the surface. Some of the most precocious and productive pecan trees are 
found on light sandy soil where subsoil and drainage conditions are suitable. 
Though the pecan tree in its natural distribution follows the rivers and 
fs a lower of water it can not in any sense of the word be considered an 
aquatic. It will not grow on marshy lands nor on sour water-logged soils. 
If one plants pecan trees on low, ill-drained lands he is sure to be utterly 
disappointed. The river lands on which pecans are found naturally are not 
the low, sobby land but rather the second bottoms where the drainage is 
good, with the permanent water table somewhere in the region of ten feet 
below the surface. In times of flood these lands may be deeply but tempo- 
rarily inundated. When in a few days or weeks the water assumes its nor- 
mal level these lands will be above watermark and be naturally well drained. 
