sufficiently
established my credibility, at least to my own satisfaction, I shall
proceed to make some observations relative to nut culture in the North.

First, let me say that I most heartily endorse the line of work
undertaken by our Association--that is, the work of collecting and
diffusing information in reference to nut culture that will be valuable
to the prospective grower. Our southern brethren have very largely
passed this stage in nut work in the South. They still have many
problems before them, but the fundamental problems of the determination
and propagation of the most desirable varieties of pecans have been
already worked out and they are producing in their nurseries hundreds of
thousands of fine budded and grafted pecan trees. There is such a lack
of information on this subject in the North that it is indeed opportune
that our Association should at the beginning of the interest in nut
culture in that section take up these various question and give the
public the benefit of our experience and information in reference to
them. There are yet many people who think that you cannot transplant a
pecan tree, and that if you cut the tap root it will not produce, while
the fact is that the pecan tree can be transplanted with almost as much
success as can fruit trees. Two years ago I transplanted a number of
cherry trees. At the same time I transplanted some pecan trees, and I
had a higher percentage of loss among the cherries than among the
pecans. There are some who believe that it is even a benefit to cut the
tap root. I have never belonged to the school which endorses cutting the
roots of any tree to accelerate its growth, except, of course, where it
is necessary to take up a tree and reset it, in which case it is
necessary to cut some of the roots. It is unquestionably true that if
the roots are cut too severely the tree receives too great a shock, but
the pecan tree seems to recover as quickly as any other variety of tree.
However, there are hundreds of farmers today who would not undertake to
raise pecans, for the reason that they think they cannot be
transplanted. Also, in every community where the pecan is native, can be
seen many seedling trees ranging anywhere from ten-to twenty-five years
old that have never borne a nut. These trees are pointed out by the
general public as horrible examples of the uselessness of attempted
pecan culture. Near my home at Boonville, Ind., is a row of seedling
pecan trees p