ost northern natural habitat in
Iowa were planted in garden soil here in St. Paul. Most of them were
later transplanted in nursery rows at my farm seven miles east of River
Falls, Wisconsin. Out of approximately 300 trees, about 40 are still
living, of which 25 have grown well. The remainder probably have not
found soil conditions to accommodate their natural vigorous growth.
Where the trees are in deep soil with sufficient plant food, they have
done well, the largest tree being about 10 inches in diameter, and
several of these have been bearing nuts for five years. The nuts were
immature, however, but in the fall of 1949 about 70 of the best ones
were planted in a seed bed and today about 15 living trees of pure pecan
parentage represent the second generation.

This evidence is very important, for although the pecan has been almost
as hardy as any native tree (such as the bitternut hickory, the
butternut and the black walnut), yet the length of season required for
the maturing of nuts is a primary factor which would have to be
considered in recommending pecans for planting this far north. However,
it has been my observation that these pecans have slowly cycled their
way into our season, and it is gratifying to notice that this spring
many leafed out at nearly the same time that the black walnut vegetated,
which of course is much slower than the local butternut. This shows the
tremendous adaptability of the pecan, and it is hoped that this ability
to adapt itself to soil and climatic conditions will eventually cause it
to produce small but edible pecans here in the north.

It is my hope, also, that I can use our locally raised pecan seedlings
on which to graft our many successful varieties of hickories, which
heretofore have been limited to some extent in their usefulness because
we had only the local bitternut stocks on which to graft. Whereas the
bitternut is an excellent stock for some varieties of shagbark hickory
and even for shellbark, as well as pecans and hicans, there would no
doubt be an increase in the scope of hickory planting if we had hardy
pecan seedlings as understocks. At first, when comparing the growth of
the native bitternut seedlings with that of pecans, locally raised in
the same soil, it appeared that the pecan was a much more vigorous
grower; but experiments with different types of soil and fertilizers
indicate that we can get seedlings of certain bitternut hickories to
produce from two to three