ati, Ohio. From thence its range extends south to
Chattanooga, Tenn., and on to Vicksburg, Miss. From Vicksburg it skirts
the Gulf of Mexico at a distance of seventy-five to one hundred miles to
Laredo, Texas; thence along the Salado river into Mexico. The western
boundary embraces the headwaters of the Colorado river and returns more
or less directly to Davenport, Iowa. On the outskirts of this area, it
extends farthest in all directions along the streams and rivers, while
on the drier intervening ground the line does not extend so far from the
center of the region. Particularly is this true in Southwestern Texas,
where the pecan is confined almost solely to river bottoms.

CULTURAL AREA.

The area in which the pecan is cultivated as an orchard tree is not
confined to the limits of its native range. Plantings have been made
outside its native home in New Mexico, California and Oregon in the
West, and in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
Southern Alabama and the Gulf regions of Louisiana, Mississippi and
Texas. In many other States experimental plantings have been made.
Leaving these out of consideration, however, it will be seen that in
about twenty States the pecan is either found as a native tree in the
forests or is cultivated in orchard form. The area corresponds in some
measure with that in which cotton is grown, though it extends farther
north and west than the cotton region.

[Illustration: FIG. 1. Approximate Pecan areas. Native areas within
solid line. Cultural area within dotted line.]

The attempts which have been made from time to time to cultivate the
pecan in the more northerly States have not proved successful. The tree
has, in many cases, grown well, but fruit has not been produced. The
pistils and stamens of the pecan are not found in the same flower but in
different flowers borne some distance apart on new and one-year-old
wood, respectively. Consequently, it frequently happens that the flowers
are not matured at the same time, as a result of which pollination
cannot take place. Moreover, late spring frosts often destroy one or
both sets of flowers, and the result, as far as fruit is concerned, is
the same in either case. As a result of these experiences, the pecan
cannot be recommended as a nut-bearing tree north of its natural range
in the Mississippi Valley, neither will it succeed at the high
elevations in the Alleghany mountains. It reaches its most northerly
cultu