8 A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



At the present time there are large quantities of Chestnuts, Pecans, Hick- 

 orynuts, Walnuts, Chinquapins and Hazelnuts gathered and sold in the Eastern 

 and Central States. In the mountains of the Southwest the Indians gather 

 quantities of nuts from several species of the Pine. They are usually roasted 

 about like Peanuts and are of very delicious flavor. They are on sale in many 

 of the stores of those regions, and I have bought them of the Indians along 

 the railroads in Arizona and New Mexico. 



But a large portion of the nuts sold in our markets are imported from 

 Europe, and this in the face of the fact that the most of them might be pro- 

 duced within our own borders. According to the reports of the United States 

 government, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, there were imported 

 during that year nuts to the value of 11,463,899. Over half of this amount was 

 paid for seven million four hundred and thirty -six thousand seven hundred and 

 eighty-four pounds of Almonds. Of Cocoanuts there were $62,688 worth, and 

 of all other nuts (which includes a few other tropical kinds, and the Chestnut, 

 Persian Walnut and Filbert), there were $631,758 worth. The reports only 

 mention the Cocoanut and Almond separately. There were exported nuts to 

 the amount of $125,383 ; but as no further details of exported nuts are given, 

 it is only possible to suppose that they were principally Pecans, Persian Wal- 

 nuts, and probably a few Hickorynuts. 



After a careful inspection of the warmest parts of Florida.and California, I 

 am convinced that the cocoanut w r ill never be grown in the United States in 

 any considerable quantities for market. Although I saw trees in Florida bear- 

 ing very well, the area of their successful culture is small, and the transporta- 

 tion from the tropics is so cheap, that the price will probably be too low for 

 successful competition on our part. 



The Pecan ^ our w ^ nuts the Pecan is the best, and is gathered 

 in larger quantities than any other. Its native habitat 



is the rich river and creek bottoms of the lower Mississippi valley. Texas pro- 

 duces the principal part of the crop sent to market. In the Fall of 1876 I saw 

 many thousands of bushels brought to market there by the wagon load. In 

 some of the cotton-growing sections of that State, as early as 1871, it is said that 

 the Pecan crop was worth five times as much to the people as the cotton crop 

 of that year. One authority states that in 1880, in the city of San Antonio 

 alone, there w r ere sold one million two hundred and fifty thousand bushels. 

 Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri also produce very good Pecans. 



The selection of the choicest wild varieties for planting seedling orchards 

 has been practiced to some extent for many years past. I saw standing near 

 " the old Jackson battle-field," below New Orleans, two rows of majestic Pecan 

 trees that were said to have some years borne over two barrels per tree. I 

 judged them to have been planted over one hundred years ago. But it is not 



