The Pecan and its Culture Part 6

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13. Van Deman Pecan.]

Specimens for description obtained of Dr. J. B. Curtis, Orange Heights, Fla. The original tree of this variety was grown from a nut planted by the late Duminie Mire, of Union, St. James Parish, La., in 1836. The tree still stands, thrifty and vigorous, bearing 200 to 300 pounds of nuts yearly. It was first widely distributed by the late Col. W. R. Stuart, Ocean Springs, Miss., who gave it the name Van Deman. Previously, it had been propagated and distributed locally by the late Emil Bourgeois.[H]

VALSIES. Reported by Ladd Bros., Stonewall, Miss., and listed in "Nut Culture in the United States," U. S. Dept. Agr., Div.

Pomology, 1896, 64.

WILLINGHAM. Ill.u.s.trated in Farm and Ranch, Vol. 23, No. 49, Dec. 3rd, 1904, p. 1.

YOUNG. Medium to large, 1-5/8 x 1 inches; ovate cylindrical, rounded at the base; color grayish-brown, splashed with purplish-brown markings from center to apex; base rounded; apex sloping rather abruptly, nippled; sh.e.l.l brittle, thin, .76 mm.; cracking quality very good; part.i.tions thin; kernel full, plump, slightly wrinkled with broad and shallow sutures; texture fairly solid; flavor sweet, rich, nutty; quality very good.

Obtained from Chas. E. Pabst, Ocean Springs, Miss. Originated by and named for B. M. Young, Morgan City, Louisiana.

HYBRID PECANS.

The pecan appears to inter-pollinate freely with some of the other species of hickory, particularly _H. minima_, _H. laciniosa_ and _H.

alba_. A number of what are believed to be well-marked hybrids of the pecan with these different species have been found, the most noteworthy of which, perhaps, are given below:

MCCALLISTER. (Syn.: _Floyd_.) Received from O. L. McCallister, Mount Vernon, Ind. This is probably a hybrid. It is the largest nut among all the hickories received at this office. The hull is about one-fourth of an inch thick when dry, and opens readily to the base with four valves. Nut 2-1/8 inches long, 1-5/16 inches wide, and 1-1/16 inches thick; base broad, rounded; apex broad, blunt, angular. In compressed form, in color of nut, also in the angularity and thickness of sh.e.l.l, it is quite similar to sh.e.l.lbark hickory. The kernel of a well-filled specimen is in color, consistency and flavor more like a sh.e.l.lbark of high quality than a pecan. The tree is reported to be "so similar to pecan in bark and leaf that it would be impossible to detect the difference," yet the buds and young wood more closely resemble sh.e.l.lbark. The tree was found many years ago on a farm now owned by Mr. McCallister. The nuts have little pomological value, as grown on the original tree some years, the kernel being shriveled and not filling more than one-third of the s.p.a.ce within the sh.e.l.l; yet nuts from the crop of 1893 have been received at the Division of Pomology which were well filled with a kernel of very pleasant flavor.

Possibly it may become more uniform in maturing fruit in Mississippi or Texas, where the season is longer than in Indiana. It is well worth a trial by experimenters in those States. Sargent gives a short description of this nut under the name Floyd, and accredits the points of his description to A.

S. Fuller in New York Tribune, weekly edition, July 9th, 1892, and says it is perhaps a hybrid. (Nut Culture in the United States, 1896, p. 63-4.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: (_Photo by Dr. Wm. Trelease._)

FIG. 14.

The Nussbaumer Hybrid.]

NUSSBAUMER. In the American Agriculturist for 1884, p. 546, fol., A. S. Fuller published an account of a supposed hybrid between this species and the pecan, which has been called the Nussbaumer hybrid, after J. J. Nussbaumer, of Okawville, Ill., who first brought it to the attention of Judge Samuel Miller, of Bluffton, Mo. Mr. Nussbaumer writes me that the original tree, which stands in the bottom between Mascoutah and Fayetteville, Ill., in general appearance resembles laciniosa, though the bark is intermediate between that of the Pecan and Mockernut. Prof. Sargent states (Silva, vii, 158) that a small tree grown from this in New Jersey, by Mr. Fuller, cannot be distinguished from laciniosa of the same age; and I should hardly be able to distinguish an imperfect twig from a small tree, cultivated by Judge Miller, from laciniosa. The nut, however, is very peculiar, being more elongated than is usual in that species, and widened upwardly, less acutely angled "as if the ridges had been sandpapered down," and so thin-sh.e.l.led that it can be crushed easily by pressing two together in the palm of the hand. A somewhat similar nut, originally from Indiana, was described by Mr. Fuller In the New York Weekly Tribune, July 9, 1892 (Sargent's Silva, l.c.), as cultivated by R. M. Floyd, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And in the autumn of 1895, Dr. J. Schneck sent me ample fruit, twig and leaf specimens of a similar hickory from Posey county, Indiana. The nut of this last is almost identical with a specimen of the Nussbaumer nut in the Englemann herbarium, while its twigs closely resemble those of laciniosa, and the leaves are decidedly of the pecan type. I am led to the conclusion, therefore, that these several forms really represent hybrids between H. pecan and H.

laciniosa. In size, quality, and thinness of sh.e.l.l they appear to be the most valuable of American nuts. (Trelease, Wm., 7th Report Mo. Bot. Garden, 1896, pp. 40-41.)

POOSHEE. Size small, 1-1/4 x 7/8 x 3/4 inches; ovate, flattened wedged, sutures prominent; color dull brown with a very few dark lines at the apex; base rounded; apex flattened abruptly, short pointed; sh.e.l.l medium in thickness, 1.5 mm.; part.i.tions thin, 4-celled at base; kernel rounded in outline, light yellow in color, sutures broad, shallow, halves indented at base; surface much wrinkled and corrugated; flavor sweetish.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15. H. Minima and two of its hybrids, Westbrook and Pooshee.]

Specimens of this nut were secured from Dr. J. F. Wilson, Poulan, Ga., who received them from Prof. Burgess, Clemson College, S. C. The nut presents exactly the same characteristics as the Westbrook, except in flavor and color of kernel. It, too, is doubtless a hybrid, _H. minima_ x _H.

pecan_. The original tree of this variety stands by or in the old Ravenel cemetery, near Pinopolis, Berkely county, S. C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by Dr. Wm. Trelease._

FIG. 16. The Schneck Hybrid.]

SCHNECK. In the autumn of 1894, Dr. J. Schneck, of Mt. Carmel, Ill., and F. Reppert, of Muscatine, Iowa, sent to the herbarium twigs and fruit of bottom-land trees that appear to be hybrids of this species with the pecan. The bark of the Iowa tree is described as being much like that of the Mockernut, while the tree of Dr. Schneck is smooth-barked, resembling the pecan. So far as I have seen them, the twigs of both might pa.s.s for those of alba, except that the outer scales of the terminal buds are persistent, while the foliage, though intermediate, is strongly suggestive of that of the pecan. The fruit is oblong, almost 2 inches long, the husk 6 mm. thick, parted nearly to the base, with strongly elevated margins to the segments, and rather persistent on the tree. The nuts are nearly as pale as in the s.h.a.gbark, conspicuously brown striped, slightly 4-celled at the very base, and with a wall only 1 mm.

thick. As is usual in ALBA, they are upwardly attenuate, and frequently the kernel is abortive. (Trelease, Wm., 7th Report Mo. Bot. Garden, 1896, pp. 44-45.)

WESTBROOK. Size small, 1-3/8 x 7/8 inches; ovate, flattened, prominently sutured; color brown with a few indistinct brownish streaks close to the apex; base rounded; apex wedge-shaped, ridge, abruptly-pointed; sh.e.l.l rough and irregular, thin, 8.5 mm.; part.i.tions rather thin, 4-celled at base; kernel reddish-brown, much wrinkled, sutures of moderate width and depth, halves divided at the base, much corrugated in cross section; flavor decidedly bitter and puckery.

The parent tree is one standing in the yard of J. H. Westbrook, Mt. Olive, N. C., and grew from what, to all appearances, was a pecan nut. The foliage and general aspect of the tree closely resembles the pecan, though the serrations on the leaves are coa.r.s.er and larger. The fruit resembles, in many respects, that of _Hicoria minima_, and, in short, it appears to be a well-marked hybrid between that species and _Hicoria pecan_.

FOOTNOTES:

[C] Taylor, Wm. A., Yearbook, 1904.

[D] Letter from Mr. S. H. Graves, dated June 19th, 1903.

[E] The Nut Grower, p. 119, March, 1904.

[F] Taylor, Wm. A., Yearbook, U. S. Dept. Agriculture, 1904.

[G] Taylor, Wm. A., Yearbook, 1904.

[H] Wm. A. Taylor, Yearbook, 1904.

CHAPTER V.

PECAN JUDGING.

Every grower of the pecan should be a judge of pecan nuts, and the ideas of growers, while they may differ on certain minor points, should agree on the more important characters of the nut. To enable growers, nurserymen and judges to work on a common standard of merit, a scale of points, in which each individual characteristic of the nut may receive a certain fixed number of credits, is indispensable.

At the second annual meeting of the National Nut Growers' a.s.sociation, held in New Orleans, the following scale of points for judging pecans was adopted:

PECAN NUTS.

_External characters._ _Points._ Size, 20 Form, 5 Color, 5 _Sh.e.l.l characters._ Thinness, 10 Cracking quality, 20 _Kernel characters._ Plumpness, 20 Color, 5 Quality, 15 ----- Total, 100

_Tree._ _Points._ Vigor, 10 Habit, 10 Toughness, 10 Resistance to disease, insects, 10 Precocity, 10 Uniformity of ripening, 10 Productiveness, 40 ----- Total, 100

The rating of a variety to be determined by averaging the rating of nut and tree.

EXPLANATORY NOTES, CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF SAMPLES.

All samples submitted for judging shall be fair average samples of the crop and not selected specimens. They should he tree-ripened, and should be thoroughly cured before judging. Polishing, coloring or other manipulation to disqualify:

_Size_--The nuts should be large and reasonably uniform in size; nuts running smaller than 100 per pound, to be disqualified.

_Form_--The nuts should be symmetrical in form and reasonably smooth of surface.

_Color_--The sh.e.l.l should be bright and clear in color without excess of surface markings.

_Thinness_--the sh.e.l.l should be sufficiently thin in proportion to size of nut to crush readily.

_Cracking Quality_--The sh.e.l.l should be brittle and should separate readily from the kernel leaving it clean and in perfect halves.