uts from tree to tree as to size and maturity. This question of
compatibility between stock and scion is of the utmost importance and it
impedes investigational work, complicating comparisons we are trying to
make. Some of our new varieties which we are trying out might be checked
immediately if we knew the effect of the under stocks of our trees.

Our farms are about 50 miles north of St. Louis, Mo. Our first problem
with pecans is maturity. The old named varieties are a little late for
us. I personally feel that we should get grafts from no farther north
than New Haven, Ill., or Rockport, Ind. I am interested in Mr. Gerardi's
varieties at O'Fallon, Ill., because they should be early. Dr. Colby has
brought to light three new ones from Cass County, Ill. which should make
excellent maturity in central Illinois.

We are blessed in our community with large numbers of native pecan
seedlings. The behavior of different nuts on different stocks is not the
same. Before any nut should be condemned we feel it should have an
opportunity to perform on different stocks over a period of years. For
this reason we always try to graft a number of trees to each variety.

Most things taken from nature are subject to improvement and can be
better adapted to the use of man. I would like to see some new varieties
of pecans developed for our northern zone. I would like to see large
plantings of nuts from all our leading varieties of pecans. From these
seedling studies, great good would come and possibly a good variety. I
would like to see Major, Greenriver, Giles, Posey, Busseron, Indiana,
the Gildigs crossed with some early prolific nuts. I would like to see
every nut that had any good quality crossed with every other good nut in
a mass planting so that genetics could operate and have these trees
planted where they might be permitted to reach maturity and the "get" of
each union studied. We might get an early heavy bearer which would
revolutionize the pecan industry. I would like to see some of our good
Southern varieties like Stuart crossed with early northern varieties.
This search for new nuts should be accelerated.

Let us rededicate ourselves to the problem of getting the "super-nut."
Let us explore these new fields of nut germ plasm which lie all about
us, pull these old nuts apart genetically and recombine their good with
the good of other nuts into new varieties. If we should fail 10,000
times and succeed once, success would be che