ntime the apple trees, of course, have produced a
profitable crop.

Our growers, however, and the industry in the state are far more
concerned with the utilization of the native trees. To talk about these
native trees is almost--well, we might borrow a Texas expression--these
trees grow both in Oklahoma and Texas--and the Texans say whenever a
Texan tries to tell the truth everybody knows he is lying. That's the
way everybody knows about some of these native trees. When we think of a
huge, tall tree 20 or so feet in circumference over a hundred years of
age and realize that the white man has occupied that particular
territory for only a little over 50 years, we wonder about the history
of that tree for the first 50 years of its life when wild Indians were
roaming the territory and buffalo were grazing under these trees which
were getting started.

These trees occur along the streams, very seldom out away from the
streams for any considerable distance, as one of the native forest trees
and in sufficient number so that when all other trees are removed the
stand of pecan trees remaining is in many cases more than adequate to
make a complete stand of pecans for commercial production. So that after
having removed the oaks and elms and cottonwoods and willows and the
other native trees, we have the opportunity of making a considerable
selection of desirable native or seedling trees by observing the type of
nut which each tree produces.

We are not, in making this selection, concerned so much with the size of
the nut produced as we are with the kernel percentage which will be
yielded by the nut upon cracking and extracting the kernels and by the
ease of separation. Within comparatively recent years many cracking and
shelling plants have been established throughout the state, and the
history of the industry I think will record that the establishment of
these cracking plants in the territory where the pecans are produced
will be a great stimulus to the production of that kind of nuts.

I don't know whether I have made the picture clear or not. Throughout
the eastern part of the state, that part which you in your old
geographies knew under the name of Indian Territory, and particularly
concentrated in the middle of the state there are native trees which if
properly handled, that is, cultivated and sprayed and thinned so that
each tree stands out individually by itself, will produce in paying
quantities.

On the experiment s