Mr. Toombs knows that whole area and is familiar with the
pecan trees of outstanding quality and yield history, just as you and I
knew where every tree stood in the old home apple orchard or that of
grandfather, where as boys we made frequent trips to get a pocketful of
those outstanding local variety apples.

Mr. Toombs pointed out to me a tree on his own farm that he said bears a
crop every year of from 300 to 400 pounds of nuts. In his own language
he described the tree in detail but the thing which impressed me was the
fact that he had developed standing orders for private sales to
individuals from the crops of this one tree each year because they are
of outstanding value. He showed us another tree on a neighbor's farm,
one which produced 700 pounds of nuts one year; another tree on which
the nuts were ready to harvest a month ahead of the nuts from other
pecan trees in that region. (Mr. Wilkinson, it strikes me that
propagation from this early maturing tree might well find a place
several miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line where normal fall frosts
often injure the crops.)

We are of the opinion that with organized effort we can locate these
outstanding individual trees, get enough scion wood from them and put it
in the hands of a good pecan grower, and in a few years develop
sufficient grafting wood so that we can top-work thousands of these
young native trees in the district, thereby increasing not only the
number of pounds produced per tree, but have a volume of production of
the very best quality of nuts. They tell me that one of the trees I
observed has a cracking percentage of above 60 as compared to many of
the native seedlings which have a cracking percentage of only 20-30 of
nut kernels.

+First Annual Nut Show in 1948+

In an effort to locate these outstanding seedling trees in an organized
way, our Kentucky Extension Service, cooperating with the Fulton County
Farm Bureau, local civic organizations, the local nut cracking plant,
and the Northern Nut Growers Association, through its secretary, Mr. J.
C. McDaniel, has made plans for a nut show to be held at the county
court house in Hickman, Kentucky, in early December of 1948. The feature
of the show with be the cash prizes offered for the best seedling
pecans. We request that the owners give us a history of the trees, the
age, regularity in bearing, etc., with the nut show management reserving
the right to cut a few sticks of grafting wood from the