An Early Pecan and Some Other West Tennessee Nuts

AUBREY RICHARDS, M.D., _Whiteville, Tenn._

MR. RICHARDS: There came under my observation in the latter part of last
summer a seedling pecan tree growing in the city limits of my home town.
It seemed that this tree had been growing unnoticed for possibly 50
years, judging by the size of the tree. The outstanding thing about this
tree and what called it to my attention was a patient who came into my
office complaining with a backache from picking up pecans on the 20th
day of August.

I wrote my friend, Mr. J. C. McDaniel, about this pecan, and when he
visited me during the Christmas holidays I gave him a sample. The only
thing that he could say bad about the pecan was that it was slightly on
the small side. I know personally that at least three or possibly four
bushels of good quality nuts were harvested from that tree, most of them
on the ground by the 20th of August.

In my section the Stuart pecan, which we use more or less as a
yard-stick, was ripe the latter part of October, and we thought that
possibly this tree, since it had undergone an unusually low temperature
the winter before of 20 below zero, might have possibilities.

But let's dispense with this pecan and say that we believe in the old
adage that one raindrop doesn't make a shower. It has a fair crop this
year, and they are just as green as my Stuarts now.

There is another tree that originated in West Tennessee which Mr.
McDaniel chose to call this nut "Rhodes heartnut." This tree is 7 years
old from a dormant bud on a 2-year-old black walnut seedling growing on
my back yard. It bore two clusters its second growing season, and since
that time it has borne annually, the crops increasing in proportion to
the size of the tree. This year's crop consisted of 88 clusters of nuts,
with an average nut count of 10.2 nuts per cluster, giving a total of
almost 900 nuts on this 7-year-old tree.

There is one more figure I'd like to give you. The count of clusters
compared to the number of terminals we had this spring is better than 90
per cent clusters. I have a few bud sticks here cut from green water
sprouts. That's the only kind I can find a sprout on. I brought them up
to Mr. McDaniel. If anybody can talk Mr. McDaniel out of a bud he wanted
to try, but I don't really know what plans he had for these bud sticks.
The 7 or 8 other varieties of heartnuts I have growing don't have any
that have cluste