96 A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



nary way from the woods it requires almost two years to get them well rooted, 

 and often the stocks die for want of roots after the graft has really taken. If 

 grown in rich soil the stocks will be large enough to use in one or two years. 

 I should then pot them early in the Fall, keeping them from heavy frosts and 

 bringing them into the house about the first of January, and as soon as they 

 begin to make roots I should side-graft them close to the collar and plunge 

 them in sphagnum moss, leaving the top bud of the graft out to the air. The 

 graft ought to be well united about the last of March, when the plants should 

 be taken from the sphagnum and set in the body of the house to finish their 

 growth. After carrying them over the next Winter in a cold pit they could be 

 planted out the following Spring, and the second year they could be set where 

 they are to remain, unless they are transplanted every second year." 



PECAN CULTURE. 



W. R. Stuart, in American Farm News. 



Our friend, Dr. H. L. Stewart, of Tecumseh, Mich., has handed me your 

 valuable paper, July, 1892, requesting me to send you what I can conveniently 

 on "Pecan Culture." 



Fifteen years ago (at the age of fifty-six years) I was impressed with the 

 belief that Pecan culture in the Southern half of the United States promised 

 vast possibilities if due care and attention were given it. I purchased and 

 planted the largest and best flavored Pecans that could be found, without 

 regard to price. Experience has demonstrated the correctness of that theory. 

 And it was in this way that a new industry Pecan culture was begun; an 

 industry new not only to myself, but new to the country at large. During the 

 years which have followed, I have felt a deep interest in this work, and have 

 used every honorable means at my command to advance the cause by improv- 

 ing the varieties grown and by bringing the subject prominently before the 

 American people. 



Some writers have been pleased to call me the " Father of Pecan Culture." 

 If my humble efforts have been instrumental in giving this branch of horticul- 

 ture the prominence it has attained, surely those years were well spent, and I 

 have reason to be proud of the distinction accorded me. For the Pecan has 

 taken its place in the front rank as the best and most profitable of nut-bear- 

 ing trees, while the nut itself, where its merits are fully known, is pronounced 

 superior to all others. And this industry must go on from year to year in- 

 creasing in popular favor, as well as in profit to those engaged in its pursuit. 

 The pride felt in this work has been seasoned with a reasonable admixture of 

 profit and pleasure; but there is an even greater pleasure in the thought that I 



