Of these, the McAlester is the most
outstanding, its nuts measuring over three inches in circumference and
about three inches long. Horticulturists believe that this hybrid is the
result of a cross between a shell-bark hickory, which produces the
largest nut of any hickory growing in the United States, and a large
pecan. I have experimented a number of times with the McAlester and my
conclusion is that it is not hardy enough to advocate its being grown in
this climate. There are other hiccans hardier than it is, however, such
as the Rockville, Burlington, Green Bay and Des Moines, and it is
certain that the North is assured of hardy pecans and a few hardy
hybrids, which, although they do not bear the choicest pecan nuts, make
interesting and beautiful lawn trees. Indeed, as an ornamental tree, the
pecan is superior to the native hickory in two definite ways: by its
exceedingly long life, which may often reach over 150 years as
contrasted with the average hickory span of 100 years, and by its
greater size. One pecan tree I saw growing in Easton, Maryland, in
1927, for example, was then seventeen feet in circumference at
breast-height, one hundred twenty-five feet in height and having a
spread of one hundred fifty feet.
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