PRESIDENT MacDANIELS: This last discussion certainly shows that, there is more than one way to get results. The fact remains that all these different men are producing hickory and other trees by various different means of grafting and budding. They have their own techniques which worked. What there is behind it from a scientific basis we probably don't understand too well at the present time.
I now call on Dr. McKay to present his paper. Dr. McKay.
A Promising New Pecan for the Northern Zone
J. W. MCKAY and H. L. CRANE[2]
In late 1949 Professor A. F. Vierheller, Extension Horticulturist at the University of Maryland, College Park, obtained two small pecans from an exhibit at the Prince Georges County Fair, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, which he sent to the Office of Nut Investigations at Beltsville, Maryland. These nuts were very thin shelled and contained solid, well developed kernels very light in color and attractive. We gave them no particular heed until the fall of 1951, when the authors together with Professor Vierheller, P. E. Clark, County Agent of Prince Georges County, visited the tree on which they had been produced. We found also a number of other pecan trees nearby. All of them were on an old southern Maryland estate known as Brookfield. The present owner is John C. Duvall, whose address is Naylor, a small southern Maryland community located about 25 miles southeast of Washington, D. C. in the heart of the tobacco growing area.
Origin of the Duvall trees: The present trees probably grew from nuts sent to Maryland from the vicinity of Iron Mountain, Missouri, by a friend of the Duvall family named Mrs. Mary Medora Johnson. Mrs. Johnson had lived in Maryland as a neighbor of the Duvall family and when she moved to Missouri she apparently was so impressed with the native pecan that she sent nuts to her friends in Maryland for planting. This must have happened about 1850 since the oldest trees at Brookfield are estimated to be about 100 years old and Mrs. Johnson was a friend of John C. Duvall's grandmother. In terms of the human life span the trees are thus three generations removed from the time of planting, a time period which fits fairly well the estimated age of 100 years based upon size of the trees.
Description: The three largest trees are approximately equal in size and undoubtedly represent the original planting. The eight other trees are all smaller and could well have originated as seedlings of the original three. Five of the largest trees have been given numbers 1 to 5 and will be referred to by number. Duvall No. 1, 2 and 5 are the three large trees situated more or less in a circle surrounding the old mansion, each about 100 yards from the others. The smaller trees are located more or less between and around the larger ones, the old mansion being on a slight knoll in the center of the planting. The original dwelling of Brookfield is now crumbling ruins, part of the building being more than 200 years old, according to Mr. Duvall, who lives in a modern new country home across the road from the original mansion. The three large trees have a diameter at breast height of approximately 4 feet and all of them have a branch spread of more than 150 feet. They are 75 to 100 feet tall. All of the trees have very narrow and pointed leaflets characteristic of Texas and southwestern varieties, and they are remarkably free of insect pests and diseases.
The nuts from this group of seedlings are variable in size and appearance as might be expected of those from any group of pecan seedlings. However, one of the most striking characteristics of all the nuts is that the kernels are solid and well developed. This is an unusual characteristic for pecans grown in the latitude of Washington, D. C. In all of the varieties that are usually grown in this area none which regularly fill their nuts well are known. Another outstanding characteristic of all of the nuts produced by these seedlings is the bright, attractive color of the kernel. In fact, when the nuts of Duvall No. 1 are promptly harvested and dried in the fall, the kernels are almost white. Nuts that stayed on the ground 6 months during the winter of 1951-52 were harvested in late March 1952 and the kernels were still in good condition. Some of the nuts were on display at the Rockport meetings. Small size of nut is without question the chief undesirable characteristic of these trees. Duvall No. 5 produces the largest nuts of all the seedlings but they are so small that more than 100 are required to weigh a pound. Duvall No. 1 produces the smallest nuts and almost 200 are required to weigh a pound.
Past Yields: The one characteristic that sets these trees apart from all other pecan trees that we have observed in the Maryland area is that they yield heavy crops of nuts every year. We have known the trees only since the fall of 1951 but have observed two crops and Mr. Duvall has observed their performance for many years. In the fall of 1951 Duvall No. 2 yielded an estimated 8 to 10 bushels of nuts. Mr. Duvall harvested 3 bushels and he knew that 3 bushels were harvested by friends of the family. An unknown quantity estimated at several bushels was plowed under when wheat was sown shortly before we visited the tree in the fall of 1951. The tree had a heavy set of nuts in August 1952 and Mr. Duvall predicted that it would probably yield as much this year as last. He told us that the three oldest trees always have had annual crops of nuts except for 1 or 2 years when one of the trees failed to produce as much as usual. He could not remember which of the trees produced the light crops but he was certain that light crops were borne at only very infrequent intervals.
Sweeney Tree: The two nuts originally sent us by Professor Vierheller were produced by a tree growing approximately 200 yards from the nearest Duvall tree on a part of the farm recently subdivided and now occupied by a tenant named Sweeney. Mrs. Sweeney placed the plate of nuts on exhibit at the Prince Georges County Fair and from this plate Professor Vierheller procured the sample which he sent. Hence this tree has become known informally as the Sweeney tree. Its nuts are very long and pointed but in other respects resemble very closely those produced by the other trees. The Sweeney tree is undoubtedly a seedling of one of the three large Duvall trees. This tree also has an impressive yield record, as Mrs. Sweeney said that she has harvested a bushel or more of nuts from the tree every year during the ten or more years that she has lived on the place. In 1952 the Sweeney tree was bearing a heavy crop of nuts.