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.