.

I gave several of the original seedlings to friends who planted them in
their gardens, where rich soil has stimulated them to grow at twice the
rate of those on my farm. There were four individual pecan trees growing
in or near St. Paul from my first planting, the largest being about 25
feet high with a caliber of five inches a foot above ground. Although
this tree did not bear nuts I have used it as a source of scionwood for
several years. These graftings, made on bitternut hickory stock, have
been so successful that I am continuing their propagation at my nursery,
having named this variety the Hope pecan, for Joseph N. Hope, the man
who owns the parent tree and who takes such an interest in it.

[Illustration: _Shows the use of a zinc metal tag fastened by 16 or 18
gauge copper wire to branch of tree._]

By the year 1950 the tree had such a straggly appearance, although still
healthy and growing but being too shaded by large trees on the
boulevard, that Mr. Hope caused it to be cut down. The variety is still
growing at my farm, grafted on bitternut stocks and although blossoming
it has never produced a nut up to this time.

Another tree given to Joseph Posch of the city of St. Paul, Minnesota,
had made even better growth and was luxuriantly healthy and in bloom
when it was cut down by the owner because the branches overhung the
fence line into a neighbor's yard. This was done in about 1950.

Another tree given to Mrs. Wm. Eldridge of St. Paul still flourishes and
is quite large (in 1952 at breast height, 6 inches in diameter) but
being in a dense shade, it has not borne any nuts.

The fourth tree, given to John E. Straus, the famous skate maker,
presumably exists at his lake residence north of St. Paul. I have not
seen it in the last seven or eight years.

Although they are not as hardy as bitternut stocks, I have found the
wild Iowa pecan seedlings satisfactory for grafting after five years'
growth. I use them as an understock for grafting the Posey, Indiana and
Major varieties of northern pecan and find them preferable to northern
bitternut stocks with which the pecans are not compatible for long, as a
rule, such a union resulting in a stunted tree which is easily
winter-killed. Although the Posey continued to live for several years
our severe winters finally put an end to all these fine pecans. The root
system of the seedling understock continued to live, however.

I chanced to discover an interesting th