xoS A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



The Pecan tree is valuable for its timber as well as for its nuts. Axe and 

 hoe handles, gun stocks, furniture and various other useful articles are made 

 from the wood. The nut, besides being used as-dessert, is made into cakes and 

 candies, and its oil brings the highest price in the market from clockmakers, 

 gunsmiths, etc. The tree is of slow growth and long lived, one on my place 

 being over one hundred years old in its wild state. The tree grows to the 

 height of eighty or more feet, and its home is in the rich alluvial valleys, and 

 will not succeed where the soil is not rich and deep. 



There are two distinct varieties known as the soft and hard shell. The 

 best among the soft shell varieties are known as the Swinden and Stuart. The 

 wild varieties are hard shelled. 



I have nearly eleven thousand trees on my four hundred acres, planted 

 forty feet apart each way. As there is no enterprise but has its drawbacks, I 

 must say I had them to begin with the first thing being the wood louse or 

 ant, which attacked the yellow pine stake placed by every nut. They then 

 went from the stake to the tree, and thus killed the young stem; but this was 

 obviated by cypress boxes, eighteen inches high, tarred at the bottom, which 

 also served the purpose of protecting the young tree from the depredations of 

 the rabbits and other rodents, which did me considerable damage. Squirrels 

 will unearth the nuts when planted, and rabbits will gnaw the bark and cut off 

 the tender sprouts. 



The tree will come into bearing in eight to ten years. A tree at that age 

 will produce one bushel or forty-two pounds, and sell readily at $5. At fifteen 

 to twenty years the yield will be ten bushels or more to the tree. I have seen 

 trees produce as high as forty bushels, and I have paid $150 for the product of 

 one tree. Thus we can readily draw the conclusion that the profits of the 

 Pecan will soon rival that of the famous Florida and California Orange groves. 

 The price of Pecans varies with quality and- size. The small wild ones are 

 sometimes less than $2, while the extra large ones are in demand .at as high as 

 $S. There is no fear of glutting the market with these extra sizes, as few are 

 willing to wait until they come into bearing. There is no safer life insurance 

 than a well established Pecan Orchard. There are men to-day deriving a good 

 living from a few trees planted by them, and others I know of who are getting 

 from $3,000 to $5,000 per year from trees planted by their fathers. The land 

 between the trees need not lie idle while the trees are coming into bearing, 

 but can be planted to hoed crops and made to pay. I have netted on an aver- 

 age over $1,500 per year for the past six years from my land. I advise no one . 

 to plant in localities where there is too much rain, as the pollen is liable to be 

 washed away, and thus keep the tree from fructifying and making fruit. 



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