NUT TREES FOR ROADSIDE PLANTING ioi 
caustic witticisms aimed at the planter. They enter¬ 
tained themselves by commenting on what “that d- 
Yankee” (from Maine) was doing. Their jokes were 
varied, as usual in such cases, but the general opinion of 
the planter would have been expressed in the terms of 
Blackstone by “non compos mentis .” Years went by, 
and in time these very neighbors came to ask employment 
from the planter in his nut orchards. They then frankly 
admitted that “It always did seem like the man had more 
sense than most people.” 
The importance of the nut-raising industry along 
commercial lines is evidenced by a total investment of 
more than $110,000,000 in the growing of Persian (Eng¬ 
lish) walnuts in California, with an annual crop value of 
from $10,000,000 to $12,000,000; and the growing of 
almonds in the same state, with a yearly yield of 
$2,000,000. 
Pecans are grown, wild or cultivated, in every Atlantic 
seaboard and Gulf coast state from Maryland to Texas, 
and up the Mississippi to southern Indiana and eastern 
Iowa and in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. Pecan pro¬ 
duction is bound to increase for the one sufficient reason 
that this crop thrives best mainly where no other culti¬ 
vated tree product of importance is being raised. The 
range of the Pecan is for the most part north of the citrus 
fruit section, and either south of, or below the altitude 
level of, the successful raising of apples and other decidu¬ 
ous fruits. 
The Pecan is, perhaps, the finest of all American nut 
trees for roadside planting wherever conditions of soil and 
climate will warrant. It is strictly native to this conti¬ 
nent and is found wild nowhere but in the United States. 
Beautiful specimens 3 or 4 feet through at the base and 
from 100 to 150 feet in height are found in the alluvial soils 
