timate
knowledge of its failings and shortcomings, gives way to the grafted[I]
tree. This stage has already been reached in pecan orcharding.

It has been stated that a certain percentage of pecans would produce
nuts identical with those of the parent tree. The author has yet to find
the first instance in which this was the case. This truth is borne out
by the observations of others.

In view of the fact just stated, if a planter desires to secure a
certain definite fixed variety of pecan, it can only be done by planting
grafted trees. Even though all the seedlings were of good size, yet the
variation in time of ripening, quality, prolificness, form and size
would be against them. Take a certain quantity of each of a number of
our largest pecans--Stuart, Van Deman, Centennial and Frotscher for
instance--mix them together, and under average circumstances the mixed
lot will sell for less money in the open market than the same varieties
and the same nuts would if marketed separately. Mixed nuts, no matter
how good the quality, cannot compete successfully in the market with a
single uniform sample of the same or nearly the same quality.

Grafted trees will come into bearing at an earlier age than seedlings.
In the case of seedlings it is very difficult to say when they will
begin to bear, while grafted trees of the more precocious varieties may
be expected to bear quite a little fruit in six or eight years from the
time of planting.

The great objection to grafted trees is the first cost, and yet, in the
face of that objection, it is best to plant grafted trees even if fewer
of them are planted. If grafted trees are out of the question, then
plant seedlings and top-work them. Grow the seedlings from nuts if
necessary; but to those who live in sections where pecans can be grown,
let me say, _plant pecan trees_; plant budded or grafted trees if you
can--but plant pecan trees.

PECAN STOCKS.

Nursery trees are propagated entirely on pecan stocks, and in the
present state of our knowledge, it is the best stock to use. It may be
that the pecan will grow and thrive as well on a number of different
species of hickory, but definite information bearing on this point is
lacking. _Hicoria tomentosa_, _H. alba_, and _H. aquatica_ have been
used for stocks in North Carolina, Florida, and other States, the pecan
being top-worked upon them. But for the present, at least, until our
experimental knowledge is farther advanced, the s