The success of the pecan in the South, led some planters in the northern states to make experimental plantings of these southern varieties but they have proven disappointing, as might be expected, since our seasons are too short for the nuts to mature, even where the trees are hardy. I have seen the Stuart, one of the largest southern pecans, when grown in Lancaster and Adams Counties, Pa., not half as large as the Indiana sorts and with little or no kernel. The Schley, one of the finest southern pecans, when grown in Adams Co., Pa., is so small that no one would recognize it and it has no kernel at all.
In very recent years, largely through the efforts of a few progressive men in Indiana, fine varieties of the pecan have been discovered in Indiana and Kentucky, and these varieties are being propagated and planted over the northern states generally. While the discovery of these varieties and their propagation marked a big step forward in extending the cultural range of the pecan and making it possible to grow this nut several hundred miles north of the southern pecan belt, not unlike the southern varieties, the Indiana and Kentucky varieties are necessarily limited in their range of adaptability, and it is perhaps not safe to recommend them for planting, except possibly in the more favored localities, north of the 40th parallel and south thereof and possibly in the elevated or mountain sections they should not be recommended for planting north of latitude 38 degrees. The advantages of securing varieties for propagation therefore from as far north as possible is obvious.
I have examined a good many sample pecans from Missouri and Kansas, some of which are excellent, but, aside from possibly being a little hardier in tree, they have no advantage over the fine Indiana and Kentucky varieties that we already have, unless of course, they should be better adapted to planting in the western states.
In its natural range, the pecan is found growing farther north along the Mississippi River, in Iowa and Illinois, than anywhere else in the country, and naturally we turned to these pecan forests hoping to find a variety bearing nuts of a size and quality to merit propagation and dissemination north of the belt where it is safe to recommend the planting of the Indiana varieties. As a result of correspondence with an Iowa nurseryman in the fall of 1914, I engaged the services of a competent man to gather pecans for me at Muscatine, Iowa. Following my instructions, this man searched the woods in that locality to find what I wanted for propagation and as a result, nuts were sent me from several trees which were carefully marked so that in case scions were wanted from any of the trees, they would be readily identified. This man seemed to be very enthusiastic about the nuts he sent me, and, as he had made a business of gathering pecans, and he knew the pecans in that section well, I felt that he had sent me the best that he had there. None of the pecans sent had sufficient size and merit to propagate however, and I gave the matter up. Fortunately, Mr. G. H. Corsan, Toronto, Canada, was endeavoring the same fall or winter to get pecans to grow trees that would succeed in Canada and he bought pecans from a dealer in Burlington, Iowa. Upon receiving this lot of nuts, Mr. Corsan was astonished at their large size, as he expected that pecans from the northern limit of the pecan to be of small size. Thinking that this party had sent him southern pecans, Mr. Corsan wrote him at once that he did not want southern pecans, explaining that he wanted them for planting. This party replied that the nuts sent him were genuine Iowa pecans. Knowing my interest in the matter, Mr. Corsan wrote me during the spring of 1915, giving me the facts in the case and urged that I go to Burlington the next fall and look up a variety for propagation. Fall came on, but with it, so much to do and with short help, due to war conditions, that I had to give up the trip, but, at Mr. Corsan's suggestion, I took the matter up with Mr. Ed. G. Marquardt, Burlington, Iowa, with the result that the matter was placed in his hands, with the assurance from Mr. Marquardt that he would do the very best he could for us. Mr. Marquardt employed a man who had made a business of gathering pecans there and who knew the trees bearing the largest nuts, and with the help of this man, finally located a tree 20 miles north of Burlington bearing very large pecans of thin shell and splendid quality. Although most of the nuts had been gathered, the husks on the ground indicated it had been bearing good crops. This tree was marked and some of the nuts sent to me. These pecans I considered remarkably fine for so far north. They were fully as large as the Indiana, with even a thinner shell and a full kernel of excellent quality. With the help of Mr. Marquardt, scions were secured from this tree the following spring, and grafting proved very successful, which we consider very fortunate, as this land was cleared during the war and this tree met the fate of others, being turned into lumber and it is no more.
This variety has been given Mr. Marquardt's name. Coming from 20 miles north of Burlington, Iowa, in north latitude 41 degrees, I shall expect the Marquardt to succeed any where south of the Great Lakes. The Indiana and Busseron pecans originated farther north than any others of the Indiana group, the original trees of which are growing in the Wabash River bottom, west of Oaktown, Ind., about 10 miles south of latitude 39. Most of the Indiana and Kentucky varieties are from latitude 38 degrees, or approximately 200 miles south of where the Marquardt originated. The climate of Iowa is also considerably colder than is the same latitude farther east, due to the more open character of the country west and to the influence of the Great Lakes farther east. The pecans there are not only necessarily hardier, but have to mature their fruit in a shorter season, which is all important in a variety for northern planting, as it has been shown that the pecan is hardy in tree considerably north of where it will mature its fruit properly. Realizing the importance of the Iowa pecans for northern planting and realizing the building of the big power dam on the Mississippi River at Keokuk, Iowa, and the consequent raising of the water level for considerable distance up the river together with building of levees and clearing of the forests, threatened the destruction of many of the pecan trees and pecan forests, Mr. Bixby spent nearly a week during the past fall in the pecan forests and groves along the Mississippi River around Clinton, Ia., and Burlington, Ia. The facts of the following paragraphs (except the last two) I have taken from his notes:
These pecan trees at Clinton, Iowa, are the most northerly growing of the native pecans so far discovered. They are on the islands in the river and on the bottom lands, where the land at low water is only a few feet above the water level, and at high water, several feet under water. The trees certainly are not suffering from lack of moisture. The soil is alluvial, seemingly of unknown depths and must be very fertile, enriched as it is by the deposits left by the high waters each year, or sometimes, several times a year. No pecan trees under six inches in diameter were seen here, and they ranged from that size up to 24 inches in trunk diameter 85 feet tall. No trees bearing large pecan nuts were seen, although the flavor of the kernels of practically all of the trees was good. Crops of nuts were irregular and seemingly not so good as they were some years. None of the trees near Clinton were deemed worthy of propagation.
The pecans at Burlington are growing under similar conditions to those at Clinton, but they are much more numerous, there being thousands of them, some being larger than any seen at Clinton. Four trees, including the Marquardt, have been discovered and brought to the attention of the association by Mr. Ed. G. Marquardt and Mr. John H. Witte of Burlington. Cuts of these nuts, natural size, are shown opposite page 48. The Marquardt is being propagated by me and the other three varieties by Snyder Bros., Center Point, Iowa.
From the appearance of the leaves, buds and habit of growth of the Marquardt pecan, it seemed to me that the tree had hickory blood in it, although the nut did not suggest it; and I intended to look into this matter fully, on a trip to Iowa the past fall, but finding I could not go, I gave Mr. Bixby samples of the nuts, leaves and twigs and told him what I expected, and he had this in mind during his trip. He never found young pecan trees growing in the woods but did find them growing in large numbers on the levees and on the edges of cultivated fields. A careful examination showed a very considerable variation in leaf, bud and habit of growth and there seemed little question but that there were among them many hybrids between the pecan and the big bottom shellbark, Carya laciniosa, which is found growing on the bottom lands and the islands along with the pecan. As a matter of fact, two of the four Iowa pecans selected for propagation, the Burlington and the Greenbay, show unmistakable evidence of hybrid parentage in the nut, in the leaves and buds. The Marquardt gives no hint of such parentage in the nut, but the leaves and buds do suggest that it has hickory blood in its make up, and it is believed that this is so. The Witte is seemingly a pure pecan.
There has recently been much done near Burlington in reclaiming valuable, cultivatable lands from the river which formerly overflowed them each year so that people were afraid to plant crops and they were therefore abandoned to the forests. Levees have recently been built to keep the water off these lands in time of high water. Drainage ditches have been made behind them and pumping plants put in to pump the water out of them. The cost of these improvements, which has given to cultivation much very fertile land, has been assessed on the owners of the lands benefited, as is also the upkeep expense. Many owners had not the money to pay the assessments and have sold the land to those who are clearing off the timber. This means the clearing of thousands of acres of bottom land and the pecan is one of the principle trees on these bottom lands. This condition makes it necessary to locate and propagate at once, the best and most promising of these Iowa pecans and hybrids and observe their behavior afterwards in the young trees, instead of depending on the watching of the behavior of the original trees as has been the case in Indiana.
I feel reluctant to close this address without mentioning the good work done by Secretaries Deming and Bixby and other members of this Association in searching for varieties of nuts that may be superior to what we already have. Those of us who are propagating these trees, while we may feel the inspiration that comes from doing a work that benefits mankind, nevertheless, we hope and expect to make dollars and cents out of growing these trees, while this is not the case with some of the members of this Association who are not nurserymen and who do not expect to enter this field.