134 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



small things which ought to be considered at their true 

 value in the work of making homes by the help of 

 irrigation. They will aid very greatly in achieving 

 success. 



Pecan Culture. Considerable attention is being 

 given to the establishment of pecan groves in various 

 parts of the country. The natural groves of Texas 

 and Louisiana, by the good profits they have given 

 in recent years, have stimulated the culture of this 

 valuable tree to such an extent that a few years hence 

 the quantity of nuts offered for sale will no doubt be 

 many times the present product. The pecan is allied 

 to the hickory, and while the nut is one of the best 

 grown anywhere, the timber is also most valuable for 

 a number of purposes to which at present the hickory 

 is generally applied. The pecan will not thrive in 

 too rigorous a climate, and yet it does well in Indiana 

 and parts of Illinois. It is in the milder regions 

 further south, however, that we may look for the most 

 satisfactory results from the culture of this nut. Some 

 groves have been established in Florida by grafting 

 the pecan upon the wild hickory which grows in 

 thickets in many parts of that State. 



A good deal of controversy has arisen in different 

 parts of the country over the propriety or danger of 

 removing the tap root of young pecan trees when 

 transplanting from nursery to orchard. Though both 

 sides of the question have been presented with con- 

 siderable force and warmth, at times, yet it cannot be 

 said to have been definitely settled. It takes so long 

 a time to determine the matter from actual results of 

 orchards planted in different ways, that he who plants 

 pecans should avoid every possible risk, and plant 

 the nuts where the trees are to stand, or use the 

 utmost care in handling the tree while transplanting, 

 so as to put the tap root into its place with the least 

 possible disturbance of the few fine rootlets which 

 may be attached. If we may reason from analogy we 

 shall arrive at the conclusion that nature demands 

 the tap root, and unless experience has shown it to be 

 unnecessary to the tree in a state of cultivation, it 

 were better not to take the chances of cutting it off. 



The pecan, like most other fruit and nut-bearing 

 trees, thrives best in a well-drained, porous soil, with 

 no hard-pan near the surface. In planting a large, 

 deep hole should be dug and then filled in with sur- 

 face soil, taking care that all fine rootlets are spread 

 out as they should be to insure the best growth of the 

 tree. The earth should be carefully worked about 

 the small roots by hand, only running water about the 

 tree during the operation of planting; and if the 

 locality is subject to high winds the trees should be 

 staked for the first two years at least. When well 

 grown, the pecan often bears abundantly, although 

 the tree is slow to begin yielding profitable returns. 



He who plants pecans must expect to wait eight or 

 ten years for substantial returns, although five or six 

 years may sometimes give evidence of value in a 

 grove. A report was lately made of some pecan 

 trees in Florida that yielded a return of $32 each at 

 seven years of age. But this is an extraordinary per- 

 formance and cannot be relied upon for frequent 

 repetition. Good pecans sold last fall by the carload 

 at six cents per pound. 



Running a Big Farm Does Not Pay. The 

 size of the average farm in the United States, as 

 shown by the census of 1890, was 137 acres. It is said 

 that in France the average farm comprises scarcely 

 one-fourth of this acreage. That the farms of the 

 United States, especially in the West, are generally 

 too large is freely admitted by most thinking men 

 who have given the matter careful study. One of the 

 greatest drawbacks which the American farmer has 

 'to contend with is his own inclination or determina- 

 tion, either inherited or acquired, to own more land 

 than he does or can properly cultivate or use. 



For the ten years, 1880 to 1889, inclusive, the aver- 

 age yield of wheat per acre in Massachusetts was 

 16.3 bushels, worth $20.74; Connecticut, 16.6 bushels, 

 worth $19.14; Vermont, 16.9 bushels, worth $19.75. 

 For the same period the average yield and value in 

 some of the best of the large farm States of the West 

 were as follows: Illinois, 13.4 bushels, worth $11.32; 

 Minnesota, 12.5 bushels, worth $9.31 ; Iowa, 10.6 

 bushels, worth $7.56 ; California, 12.5 bushels, worth 

 $10.35. 



During the same decade we find the relative pro- 

 duct and value of corn as follows: Maine, 32.2 bush- 

 els, valued at $24.25 ; New Hampshire, 32.7 bushels, 

 worth $24.32; Vermont, 32.5 bushels, worth $23.18; 

 Massachusetts, 31.6 bushels, worth $22.94. 



How was it on the large farms of the West? In 

 Illinois the yield was 26.7 bushels, valued at $9.38; 

 Iowa, 30.9 bushels, worth $8.63; Kansas, 28.5 bushels, 

 worth $7.90; Nebraska, 32.8 bushels, worth $7.58. 



These figures will certainly prove a surprise to 

 many western farmers, who generally believe their 

 rich prairie soils to be much more productive than 

 the farms of New England. While it is undoubtedly 

 true that the western soils are more fertile, the 

 diminished yield, compared with that from the worn 

 soils of the far East, is so much the less creditable to 

 the methods employed by the western farmer. All 

 that could be said on this subject in a thousand pages 

 of THE AGE could not more completely tell the story 

 of loose methods on the farm than the few figures 

 given above from the census of 1890. Farmers every- 

 where should study not only the best methods em- 

 ployed by the shrewdest of their craft, but should 

 know also the history of their art, to the end that a 



