doubtedly we need better
varieties. The nurseryman realizes this better than anyone else. But
when my friend from Brunswick sold his native pecans he got just about
as much for them per pound as the southern growers got for their much
larger southern seedlings. Several commercial pecan crackers that I
asked about this stated that the northern nuts have a better flavor and
they produce more kernels per pound. So the size of the kernel doesn't
make too much difference, although we all prefer the larger nuts.

Pecans in Northern Virginia

J. RUSSELL SMITH, _Swarthmore, Pennsylvania_

(Extracts from a letter to the NNGA secretary, November 26, 1951)

Having sold my Virginia cabin and the nursery business [Sunny Ridge] I
have been down to the nursery for the last month getting rid of trees. A
job of digging is one thing and that of packing and shipping is another.
The man I had could do one but not both, and competent persons to pick
up for either job are not available, so I have been standing in the gap,
getting calluses on my hands and getting rid of $16,000 worth of trees.

Now as to facts on northern pecans:

I find the Busseron bears with regularity at Round Hill, Virginia, in a
tight bluegrass sod. This pasture is not of high fertility and has had a
small amount of commercial fertilizer. It is on a hillside that has
probably lost all of its topsoil once or twice in the last hundred
years, though not for the last twenty because it has been in grass.

My neighbor, Henry B. Taylor, Hamilton, Virginia, has Busseron,
Butterick, Greenriver, Indiana, and Major, all bearing well to heavily.

Unfortunately this year the Greenriver hulls did not open, although the
nuts were well filled. Ordinarily I believe they have been dropping
their nuts, but not all at once.

Twenty-five years ago I planted some Butterick and Busseron along a
stream on a dairy farm on which I was born. There was no regular record
of their performance, but I have observed that the Buttericks have had a
good crop in 1950 and also in 1951.[6]

I had previously concluded that the Butterick was almost a non-fruiter,
and quit propagating it years ago. These especially productive
Buttericks are on alluvium near the barn in a permanent pasture where
the cattle congregate while waiting for the gate to open to let them
into the barn. It is therefore fertilized over and over again with cow
drippings.

Mr. Taylor's excellent yields are also produced