_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. _Soil_: The trees growing on soil that is classified as Sassafras fine sandy loam in the heart of the southern Maryland tobacco growing district. This soil type, one of the best agricultural soils of the area, is not generally regarded as one of high fertility. This soil is well drained and aerated and friable to a considerable depth, thus permitting the trees to root deeply. None of the trees are growing under crowded conditions since they are located around the margins of the building sites of the old homestead. The question now is whether grafted trees propagated from the best of the Duvall seedlings will yield heavy crops of well filled nuts that will mature early under other conditions of soil and climate in other localities. We are inclined to believe that some or all of these trees may represent a line of pecan genetically constituted to bear heavy crops of nuts every year under conditions in Maryland. If trees propagated from the Duvall trees will perform elsewhere in the northern zone there will be available for this area a new type of pecan that we feel will be distinctly worthwhile notwithstanding the small size of the nuts. Present varieties of the so-called northern pecan grown in the northern zone perform erratically at best and when many of the varieties produce crops the nuts fail to mature and fill properly. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 2: Horticulturist and Principal Horticulturist, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland.] The Hickory in Indiana W. B. WARD, _Department of Horticulture, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind._