I have
was made in 1944 when Moore buds began to put out on March 25, Stuart
and Success--April 5, Johnson--April 5, Coy and Major--April 8,
Greenriver and Tissue Paper--April 10.

The Johnson matures on our place several weeks ahead of Major and
Greenriver although I don't have the exact date on maturity.

Experiences of a Nut Tree Nurseryman

J. F. WILKINSON, Rockport, Indiana

In pioneering a nursery as we did in the early days of propagation of
Northern nut trees, especially the pecan, it was necessary to first
locate parent trees in this section that were worthy of propagation, in
order that the nursery stock produced from them would be hardy in this
and more northern territory.

Along the Ohio and Wabash rivers and their tributaries many thousands of
large seedling pecan trees grew naturally, and to locate some of the
most worthy ones for propagation took the combined efforts of all of us
in this section who were interested, as well as the aid of the tree
owners and nut gatherers.

In the year 1910 three nut nurseries were established here in Southern
Indiana, two of which have long since been discontinued. Before that
time a very few propagated pecan trees had been produced in an
experimental way by some fruit tree nurserymen.

Little did I realize at that time the trials and headaches that lay in
the path I was to travel in this venture, such as locating the parent
trees, securing the graft and budwood from them, learning to keep this
wood from time of cutting until used, methods of propagation, trying to
educate the prospective tree buyer as to the value of these trees, and
to believe that pecan trees could be transplanted, and that they would
bear if the taproot had been cut, and many other things.

Production of nut trees in nurseries in this northern territory is so
different, and more difficult than in the Gulf Coast country, where I
spent a part of two seasons hoping to get information that would be of
value here. What I learned there was of little or no value here, so it
was up to us to solve our own problems in this section by experience, as
there was very little in print at that time on Northern nut tree
propagation.

One of our first problems was to learn to keep cions from time of
cutting until time of use, not knowing when that time was. We tried all
times from March until May, having little success at any time. At first
we kept the scions in a cold storage plant in Evansville, an