moisture rapidly and become subject to
spoilage due to molds and other fungi and therefore must be considered
as highly perishable and handled accordingly.

There is a great difference in the keeping quality of the nuts produced
by different trees in that some are very susceptible to infection by
molds and bacteria and spoil quickly while others keep quite well. At
Meridian, Miss., nuts from 5 different seedling trees ranged from 2 to
34% mold infection at harvest. Studies made by John R. Large at U. S.
Pecan Field Station, Albany, Ga., showed that much of the infection of
the nuts by molds occurred after they had fallen from the burs and while
the nuts were in contact with the soil. It is, therefore, essential that
the nuts be harvested promptly after they are mature.

As a general practice the nuts should be gathered every other day during
the ripening season. Burs that have split open and exposed the brown
nuts should be knocked from the trees, and all of the nuts on the ground
should be gathered up cleanly. It would be difficult to emphasize too
strongly the importance of harvesting the nuts promptly as soon as they
are mature. Prompt and careful attention must then be given to the
conditions under which they are stored if they are to remain for long in
an edible and viable condition.

After the nuts have been gathered[10] they should be held in a layer not
exceeding 1 or 2 inches deep for 3 or 4 days. It is important that they
be kept in a well-ventilated building and that the sun does not strike
the nuts during curing. After the preliminary curing, the nuts should be
placed in friction-top metal cans (slip-top cans) and the lids should
not be tight for the first month of storage. The nuts contain enough
moisture after the short curing process that the lids will "sweat", or
surplus moisture will accumulate on the under side. This will disappear
slowly by evaporation during the first month or 6 weeks of storage and
the lids may then be pushed firmly into place, making the can nearly
airtight. The containers of nuts should be held in cold storage at
temperatures of 32 deg. to 36 deg.F. While some nuts have kept quite well at
temperatures as high as 45 deg.F., the tests indicate that the nearer the
storage temperature is to 32 deg.F., the less is the mold development.
Placing the cans in an ordinary home refrigerator should prove fairly
satisfactory with nuts that have good keeping quality.

[Footnote 10: If the nu