PECANS. 



W. N. HUTT, HORTICULTUBIST. 



The possibilities for commercial pecan growing are very bright. 

 There is now a greater demand for all kinds of nuts than ever before. 

 In spite of increasing duties on nuts imported from foreign countries 

 to the United States our imports of them are now larger than at any- 

 time in the Nation's history. The following table gives the value of 

 our imports of nuts for the last decade: 



1900 $3,484,609 



1901 3,756,137 



1902 4,214.676 



1903 5,038,726 



1904 5,173,306 



1905 6,154,515 



1906 7,228,607 



1907 6,315,891 



1908 9,563,742 



With the exception of the year 1907, it will be seen that each year 

 shows a large excess in nut imports oVer the year preceding. This 

 large increase is due in some measure to the natural increase in 

 wealth and population, but much more to the fact that nuts are now 

 being recognized as foods and not merely as condiments and luxuries. 

 They are now considered as a household staple like rice and raisins 

 and are entering largely into the daily diet of our people. This has 

 created a demand for nuts greater than ever before — a demand that 

 our growers will not be able to catch up with for years. This demand 

 is stimulating the production of all kinds of nuts, but most of all 

 the pecan, which is undoubtedly the finest, most nutritious and most 

 delicious of all nuts. The pecan being a native of the Southern 

 United States, is to us a natural monopoly. The world must get 

 her supplies of pecans from us, and as yet we do not begin to supply 

 the local demands, to say nothing of producing any for export. In 

 the pecan trees of the South and the soils capable of growing them 

 we have a natural resource with possibilities for golden development, 

 yet one of which our people have scarcely yet become conscious. The 

 cotton planter with the boll weevil hanging over him like the sword 

 of Damocles temporizes from year to year with a crop that adds no in- 

 creased value to his land, when he could raise pecans at less per pound 

 than cotton, sell them at double and triple and add a permanent in- 

 crement to his farm. The pecan tree is not attacked by the dreaded 

 boll weevil, and the planter who is turning his cotton patch into a 

 pecan orchard has nothing to fear from its depredations. 



