FLORIDA .STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
175 
rieties, being either praised or condemned 
on insufficient evidence. Even that old 
reprobate—Rome or Columbian has done 
well in a few instances. It seems that this 
question must be thrashed out in the 
south with the pecan in much the same 
fashion as it was with the walnut in the 
west, and indeed as has been the case 
with most fruits everywhere. Such a 
process is slow and costly but will even¬ 
tually succeed. It is only within the last 
few years that varietal trees have fruited 
in any considerable localities but a com¬ 
pilation of results will in a few years add 
much to our store of information. It is 
just here that our association can be of 
great service in collecting information. 
The Nut Growers’ Association could 
engage in no more beneficial undertaking 
than securing the establishing of a com¬ 
prehensive plan of experimentation with 
leading varieties of pecans in many local¬ 
ities within the pecan belt. To insure uni¬ 
formity of treatment, this had best be un¬ 
der National control and I think we 
should use every effort to induce the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture to take the mat¬ 
ter under consideration. Much time could 
be gained by securing as far as possible 
groves already planted and by top-work¬ 
ing to varieties to be tested. From a 
theoretical view it has been thought va¬ 
rieties which remain dormant late in 
spring would do well in colder sections 
but we have instances of some of the very 
early starters doing well in rather north¬ 
ern sections, while slow starters have fre¬ 
quently been winter-killed in Fla. 
It is certain that few trees are old 
enough to serve as definite examples of 
success or failure, that is we have as yet 
few criterions. 
The question of fertilizing still offers 
opportunity for investigation, though the 
general principles are pretty well worked 
out. I am convinced that it makes a dif¬ 
ference as to the sources from which the 
plant food elements are derived. The 
pecan in some respects behaves like 
the pineapple and it is my obser¬ 
vation that rosette may be induced 
by improper fertilization of the pecan 
just as spike is induced when we 
use the wrong materials on pineapples. 
Two other matters which give opportuni¬ 
ty for research are bud-variation and 
stock-influence. It is well known that 
grafted trees of the same variety under 
similar conditions will show appreciable 
differences. This may be due to bud-va¬ 
riation, which undoubtedly gives rise to 
some variation but on the whole I believe 
we underestimate the influence of the 
stock upon which we graft trees. 
Such marked differences as we note in 
seedlings could hardly help imparting 
characteristics to the scion and this may 
account for some of our vexations, like 
winter-killing, delayed fruitage, shyness, 
susceptibility to scab, etc., manifesting it¬ 
self in individual trees. Can we not by 
selection secure types of stock that will 
render the trees amenable to our require¬ 
ments? The selection of varieties almost 
serve our purposes, cannot the deficiencies 
be made up from a combined selection of 
stock and scion? To my mind here lies 
a fruitful field for scientific research. 
A question which thus far has given us 
little concern will soon demand our atten¬ 
tion, that is the marketing of our crops. 
It is our good fortune to have this subject 
presented at this session. It has been re¬ 
peatedly stated that there was no possi- 
