pparent sturdiness and
ease of installation.

[Footnote 32: Diller, O. D. "Nut Trees for Ohio Pastures," Northern Nut
Growers Association, Inc., 37th Annual Report. 1946, pp. 62-64.]

A Pecan Orchard in Gloucester County, Virginia

MRS. SELINA L. HOPKINS, River's Edge Flower Farm, Nuttall, Virginia

Mr. Reed has asked me to tell you of our experience with pecans in
Gloucester County, very near Chesapeake Bay, on North River, a tidewater
estuary of Mobjack Bay. Our house is about 20 feet from the shore, so we
call it "River's Edge," which describes it very well. The pecan trees
are on the lawn, in the barnyard, and in an adjoining field.

The orchard was planted by my late husband about 1915. The trees came
from at least two nurseries as there are two distinct sets of varieties.
There are eight varieties from the North and eight from the South. Of
the northern sorts there are Busseron, Butterick, Indiana, Kentucky,
Major, Niblack, Posey, and Warrick. These came from the nursery of R. L.
McCoy, Lake, Spencer County, Indiana.

The southern varieties are Delmas, Frotscher, Georgia (Georgia Giant),
Hale, Schley, Stuart, Teche, and Van Deman. Hale trees have been the
slowest to come into bearing, and there are several which appear to be
Hale which are not yet in fruit.

+Nut Crops Scanty+

The trees near the house, both on the lawn and in the barnyard are set
irregularly but those in the orchard are in rows, 65 feet each way. They
are beautiful in appearance, being from 40 to 55 feet tall, and are very
healthy.

However, they do not bear well. We had a pretty good crop in 1943, about
500 pounds, which we sold for 30 and 35 cents per pound. Since then we
have had very few nuts, as the flowers have evidently been killed each
year by frost.

Most of the nuts we have had have come from trees near the river, where
the air is tempered by salt air coming in at high tide. At this writing,
early August, there seems to be more nuts than at any time since 1943.
There was no frost that I could detect after the trees flowered, but
there are few nuts on the trees farthest from the river.

The fruit trees back in the county, on what we call "the highlands,"
have no fruit this year. Apparently our northern varieties of pecan do
not stand the cold any better than the southern sorts. In the last few
years, there have been more nuts of the southern varieties. I suppose
the flowers of the northern varieties came out at a tim