89 



THE PECAN INDUSTRY IN THE SOUTH 



J. M. Patterson, President National Pecan Grnxvers Association, 



Putney, Ga. 



I want to bring to this convention the greetings of tlic members 

 of the National Pecan Growers Association, and to extend to you a very 

 earnest invitation to attend our next annual meeting;. We have in our 

 association about seven hundred members and we usually have an at- 

 tendance of between three and four hundred. 



Pecan growing has passed beyond' the hope and faith stage and 

 b.ecome an established industry. In the state of Georgia we have 

 something like 70,000 acres planted to budded and grafted pecans. 

 A very large part of this acreage has not reached production. I be- 

 lieve there is nearly as large an acreage as the walnut growers have in 

 California and, if the pecans produce anything like the walnuts in 

 California, in the course of ten or twelve years we should' have a pro- 

 duction equal to the walnuts in California and, because the jiccan is 

 a much better nut, we should have a bigger return. 



The pecan has had its ups and downs. The first commercial or- 

 chards were ])lanted about eighteen years ago. I think the firm with 

 wliicli I was identified was one of the first to plant in a commercial 

 way. I think the oldest orchards, which are only small ones, are down 

 the ^Mississippi. They are probably thirty-eight or forty years old. 

 In southwest Georgia- there are some which are twenty-two or twenty- 

 three years old. The majority of the orchards are from eig'hteen 

 years old down to infants, so the industry is today still in its infancy. 

 There used to be talk, when j^ecans were first planted, that the tree 

 was without disease or insect enemies. We have rcovered from that 

 statement. The disease we suffer most from is the scab. The Delmas 

 variety, which is the largest variety of good quality produced', is said 

 to be abandoned practically everywhere, the trees cut back and worked 

 over to other varieties. In some sections the Schley is also suffering 



