Other sections where large native groves may be found are in Henderson county, Kentucky near the mouth of Green River, along the Mississippi river in western Kentucky, across the river in southern Illinois, along the Illinois river in central Illinois, along the Missouri river in central Missouri, in eastern Kansas, along the Neosho and Spring rivers, and in Bates county Missouri along the Osage river, in southwestern Missouri.
It has been my pleasure to visit one or more times each of the above places as well as every other section of note where the northern pecan grows naturally.
One of the most interesting places that I have seen is in Bates county, Missouri. I was there in May to top-work trees for Mr. Wesley Heuser, where he has a tract of land along the Osage river on which there is a large native pecan grove making it a profitable possession. Mr. Heuser is increasing its value by planting budded, or grafted trees in the open land and top-working the small native seedlings.
Adjoining this place is one owned by Mr. Fred Marquardt who recently bought it from the estate of the late J. F. Tiedke who had spent years of work there cleaning up the native grove, and top-working the small seedlings to the better varieties. Mr. Marquardt told me there was an estimated four thousand bearing size native trees, and two thousand top-worked trees most of which are of bearing size and many of them top-worked as long as twenty years ago. Mr. Marquardt is taking splendid care of this place making it a profitable as well as a most beautiful nut orchard.
Mr. Tiedke in topworking these small trees, selected those as nearly as possible in rows giving it the appearance in places of a planted orchard.
Along the Illinois river in central Illinois is a great pecan section. It is there that Mr. R. B. Best is located, and he probably has more grafted and top-worked trees than any other person in the midwest. The late Charles Stephens of Columbus, Kansas, had topworked several hundred trees in southeastern Kansas and Stanley Walberts planted a 35 acre pecan orchard there at Columbus that at the last time I visited it was a beautiful and well kept orchard.
Mr. W. F. Thielenhaus of Buffalo, Kansas is doing a lot of work there both in planting and top-working trees.
In western Kentucky, Professors W. W. Magill, and W. D. Armstrong of the University of Kentucky with county agent John B. Watts of Hickman, Kentucky cooperating, interested Mr. Roscoe Stone, who had a large acreage of land in developing the young seedling pecan trees by top-working them to better varieties. Mr. Sly and I went there the first time in the spring of 1948 and each spring since then we have worked trees on this land, and for others around Hickman to the number of possibly 500 trees.
Last year a number of the trees that were worked in the spring of 1948 produced quite a few nuts. I was there in May at which time there was a splendid crop of nuts on these trees. On August 3, I had a letter from Mr. Watts stating "I feel that many of these trees will bear a good crop of nuts this year, and although we are having a drought here, the trees on the Stone farm are not suffering much.
The largest planting of nut trees that I know in the midwest is that planted by the late Harry R. Weber near Rockport which consists of about 70 acres mostly walnuts, with some pecans, hybrids, hickories, and filberts.