Every grower of the pecan should be a judge of pecan nuts, and the ideas of growers, while they may differ on certain minor points, should agree on the more important characters of the nut. To enable growers, nurserymen and judges to work on a common standard of merit, a scale of points, in which each individual characteristic of the nut may receive a certain fixed number of credits, is indispensable. At the second annual meeting of the National Nut Growers' Association, held in New Orleans, the following scale of points for judging pecans was adopted: PECAN NUTS. _External characters._ _Points._ Size, 20 Form, 5 Color, 5 _Shell characters._ Thinness, 10 Cracking quality, 20 _Kernel characters._ Plumpness, 20 Color, 5 Quality, 15 ----- Total, 100 _Tree._ _Points._ Vigor, 10 Habit, 10 Toughness, 10 Resistance to disease, insects, 10 Precocity, 10 Uniformity of ripening, 10 Productiveness, 40 ----- Total, 100 The rating of a variety to be determined by averaging the rating of nut and tree. EXPLANATORY NOTES, CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF SAMPLES. All samples submitted for judging shall be fair average samples of the crop and not selected specimens. They should he tree-ripened, and should be thoroughly cured before judging. Polishing, coloring or other manipulation to disqualify: _Size_--The nuts should be large and reasonably uniform in size; nuts running smaller than 100 per pound, to be disqualified. _Form_--The nuts should be symmetrical in form and reasonably smooth of surface. _Color_--The shell should be bright and clear in color without excess of surface markings. _Thinness_--the shell should be sufficiently thin in proportion to size of nut to crush readily. _Cracking Quality_--The shell should be brittle and should separate readily from the kernel leaving it clean and in perfect halves. _Plumpness_--The kernel should fill the shell and must be smooth, externally, with solid meat of fine and uniform texture, free from internal cavities and with high relative weight of kernel to shell. _Color_--The kernel should be uniformly bright and attractive in color.