the chestnuts, the
pines, and the beech. Of these, one of the hickories, the pecan, is the
only species which has so far been developed by cultivation as to become
of importance for the production of an orchard product.

The timber of the pecan is less valuable than is that of most other
hickories, and is in commercial use only as second-class material.
However, it is the most important species of nut-bearing tree in the
United States. Its native and introduced range includes the fertile
lands of the plains of practically the entire southeastern quarter of
the country. It is neither an upland nor a wet land tree. In the United
States it is not found in the mountainous sections, nor, to any
important extent, south of Middle Florida. In Mexico, it is occasionally
found on mountain sides at considerable elevations and by some is
supposed to be there indigenous. However, according to "Pomological
Possibilities of Texas," written by Gilbert Onderdonk, of Nursery,
Texas, and published by the State Department of Agriculture in 1911, its
success at those altitudes is vitally dependent upon the water supply.
In each case investigated by Mr. Onderdonk, while upon official trips
made for the United States Department of Agriculture, he found the pecan
trees to be adjacent to some stream, either natural or artificial. "At
Bustamente," says Mr. Onderdonk, "one hundred and seven miles beyond
Laredo, are pecan trees two hundred years old that have been watered all
their lives and have continued productive. From these trees, grown from
Texas pecans, pecan culture has been extended until there are now
thousands of thrifty pecan trees under irrigation. One owner of a small
lot sold his water right when his trees were about seventy-five years
old, and when the writer visited his grounds fourteen years later, every
one of his trees was either dead or dying."

We may yet find the pecan to be suitable for plateau or mountain land
growth, but as Mr. Onderdonk reports was the case in Mexico, it is also
the case here. The species must have ample water. With the proper amount
of moisture, neither too much nor yet too little, there is no way of
predicting to what altitudes or even latitudes it may be taken. Its
northernmost points of native range are near Davenport, Iowa, and Terre
Haute, Indiana. Iowa seed planted in 1887, at South Haven, Michigan, on
the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, at a latitude of about 421/2
degrees, have never been seri