There are several trees on the Elisha Golay farm about one mile east of
Vevay which are in rows, which show that they were planted. The largest
has a trunk 2.2 m. long and a circumference of 31 dm. It followed the
north fork of White River as far as Greene County, and the south fork of
White River as far as Seymour. A pioneer told me he remembered a small
colony in the eastern part of Washington County in the bottoms near the
Muscatatuck River. In Indiana it is found only in very low land which is
subject to overflow.
=Remarks.=--So far as the wood is concerned, the pecan is the poorest of
all hickories. It has only about one-half the strength and stiffness of
the shellbark hickory. Although the wood is inferior, the pecan has the
distinction of producing the best nut of any native tree of America. The
pecan was well known to the Indians, and some authors say the range of
the species was extended by planting by the Indians. It has been a nut
of commerce ever since the area of its range has been settled. It was
planted by the pioneers, and recently nurserymen took up the subject of
growing stock by budding and grafting from superior trees. At present
there are about 100 horticultural varieties. The horticulturist has
developed forms twice the size of the native nuts, and with shells so
thin as to be styled "paper-shelled." The pecan has been extensively
planted for commercial purposes in the southern states, but information
obtained from owners of pecan trees in Indiana indicate that the winters
are too severe for profitable pecan culture in Indiana. During the
winter of 1917-18 the whole of a tract of 13 year old pecan trees on the
Forest Reserve in Clark County was killed back to the ground. In Noble
County about one mile south of Wolf Lake is a tree planted about 50
years ago that is about 9 dm. in circumference that frequently sets nuts
but they never mature on account of the early frosts.
=2.= =Carya cordifórmis= (Wangenheim) K. Koch. Pignut Hickory. Plate 23.
Large tall trees with tight bark, usually a light gray, sometimes
darker, fissures shallow and very irregular; twigs at first green,
somewhat hairy, soon becoming smooth or nearly so, and a
yellowish-brown, or reddish-brown by the end of the season; leaves and
leaflets variable, the prevailing type of trees have smaller leaves with
long and narrow leaflets, the unusual form has larger leaves up to 4 dm.
in length with terminal leaflets up to 2 dm. in length and 8.5 cm. in
width, and the last pair almost as large; fruit subglobose or rarely
oblong, 2-3.5 cm. long; wings of sutures extending to below the middle,
rarely one reaching the base; husk about 1.5 mm. thick, tardily
separating to about the middle; nut ovoid or oblong, slightly flattened
laterally, often as wide or wider than long, depressed, obcordate, with
a short or long point at the apex, ovoid or rounded at the base, smooth
or rarely with four distinct ridges; shell very thin and brittle; kernel
very bitter; wood heavy, very hard, strong, tough and close-grained. It
has about 92 per cent of the strength and about 73 per cent of the
stiffness of shellbark hickory.
[Illustration: Plate 23.