is there any examination of the nuts?

Mr. Pease: No, there is not.

Mr. Stoke: Could there be any possible value in sterilizing the nut
before it is cracked?

Mr. Pease: Yes. You see, the bacteria is on the shell, on the outside.
Then when you crack it, it gets on the nut.

* * * * *

President Davidson: Thank you very much, Mr. Pease. I do hate to cut
these discussions short. You get as much out of them or more, sometimes,
than we do otherwise. There is just one thing I'd like to say before we
take a five-minute recess. Mr. Acker is here. He is another man that you
might talk to in addition to talking to Mr. Mullins during the recess.

(Recess taken.)

President Davidson: The meeting will come to order. The first thing on
the program is a talk by Dr. Cross, Head of the Department of
Horticulture, Oklahoma A. & M., Stillwater, Oklahoma, on Pecan Selection
in Oklahoma. Dr. Cross.

Pecan Selection in Oklahoma

DR. FRANK B. CROSS, Head, Department of Horticulture, Oklahoma A & M
College, Stillwater, Oklahoma

Dr. Cross: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: The present status of the
pecan industry in Oklahoma is the result of close cooperation between
the growers and the experiment station combined with a resource which we
have in that state consisting of thousands of native pecan trees which
may be quickly and economically changed into producing trees instead of
just wild forest trees.

I am going to utilize my time this afternoon to discuss, first, briefly
the present situation as we find it with reference to pecans in
Oklahoma, because there is the important phase of nut growing which we
follow in that state. We do grow some walnuts and we have a great many
men interested in walnuts, but far and away our major interest is in
pecans.

We might divide the work and interest in the state into two phases.
First, but of least importance, is that connected with the planting and
production of varieties. We have a great many men in the state who wish
to plant land to pecans, and, of course, in cases like that the
varieties which are available are always selected for planting, and
nursery trees, of course, are utilized. The latest phase of that type of
development is the planting of apple trees for filler trees with the
expectation that the apple trees will be removed after 15 or 20 years,
thus leaving the pecan trees at a large size to fully occupy the ground,
and in the mea