PECANS. 



SECOND BULLETIN 



By W. N. HUTT. 



Just two years ago I wrote my first bulletin on the growing of 

 pecans in North Carolina. At that time I did not expect to have 

 anything further to report on this subject for several years. The old 

 idea that a pecan tree requires a decade or two to come into bearing 

 was generally believed to be true, because there was no experimental 

 data to the contrary. 



When I planted the experimental pecan orchards on three of the 

 State Test Farms in the winter of 1906-7, I had, in accordance with 

 the prevailing opinion, made up my mind that for the present I had 

 done all I could, and having years to wait before I could expect suf- 

 ficient data for publication, I would, in the meantime, turn my atten- 

 tion to quicker-maturing lines of experimental work. But those 

 pecan trees did not stand idle nor make the tardy growth that 

 tradition said they would. Under intensive cultivation they grew 

 by leaps and bounds, and the largest trees just three years from set- 

 ting produced a few scattering nuts. The varieties that bore the first 

 nuts were Schley, Stuart, and Curtis. The fourth season there was 

 an increased number of nuts on the trees that bore last year, and new 

 trees came into bearing. The additional varieties that came into 

 bearing the fourth season were Frotscher, Georgia, Louisiana, and 

 Dewey. Surely, this was "getting busy" early, and also flatly contra- 

 dicting the old idea that the pecan is normally very late in bearing. 

 Valuable experimental data of many kinds accumulated rapidly ; and 

 that is why this second pecan bulletin follows so rai)idly on the heels 

 of the first. 



In the spring, careful observations were made on the budding-out 

 of the trees. It was found that there was great variation in the 

 time of starting of growth in different varieties, and even in trees of 

 the same variety. Peach trees had been set as "fillers" between the 

 pecan trees. When the peach trees were all in leaf not a single pecan 

 tree had started. Growth of all kinds was in full swing when the 

 first pecan trees began tardily to push out. Seedling pecan trees 

 nearby were in full leaf. Although the season was a very favorable 

 one for growth, there being a great deal of rain in spring and early 

 summer, many of the pecan trees did not bud out until midsummer. 

 Several of the trees started growth in early autumn, while a few 

 showed no sign at all of growth the first season, and did not push a 

 2— C 



