-2518 



PECAN 



PECAN 



The pecan is one of the hickories which comprise 

 an American group of great interest. The trees are 

 monoecious; that is, the male and female (staminate 

 and pistillate) are separate on the same plant. (Fig. 

 2822; adapted from Bulletin No. 251, Bureau of Plant 

 Industry.) The staminate or pollen-bearing flowers are 

 in slender hanging catkins, and the pistillate or fruit- 

 bearing flowers are in small erect or stiff clusters (Fig. 

 823, page 676). Several of the staminate or male 

 flowers are shown separately at a, Fig. 2822, and one 

 of the pistillate or female flowers at 6. 



Natural and cultural range. 



The species is native in river-bottoms and lowlands 

 of the Mississippi River and its tributaries as far north 

 as Davenport, Iowa; Covington, Kentucky; Terre 

 Haute, Indiana; and the vicinity of Kansas City, 

 Missouri. It is also found throughout most of the 

 river-valleys of Texas and the adjacent parts of Mex- 

 ico. It does not appear to have been found native at 

 any point in close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 Jt thus occurred wild in considerable regions of Texas, 



2823. Pecan tree, the Centennial, St. James Parish, Louisiana. 

 Grafted about 1847. 



Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, 

 Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and 

 Illinois, and small areas in southeastern Nebraska and 

 southeastern Iowa. The species was scatteringly 

 introduced throughout the southeastern states from 

 Florida northward to Virginia at an early date, so that 

 trees of considerable age are found at many points in 

 them. The earliest efforts at commercial planting 

 appear to have been made in Louisiana, Mississippi, 

 and Texas, but some of the greatest activity in this 

 direction in recent years has been outside of the native 

 habitat, in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, and 

 considerable plantings have been made also in North 

 Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and some on the Pacific 

 Coast in California and Oregon. 



Commercial importance. 



As an article of commerce, the pecan did not receive 

 much recognition until after the Civil War; but, increas- 

 ingly large shipments of wild nuts moved northward 

 from Louisiana and Texas from 1870 to 1890 at prices 

 which encouraged farmers and ranchers to harvest 

 them systematically, though not to engage in orchard 

 planting. Early in the nineties, as the result of the 

 marketing in New Orleans of the product of a few 



individual trees yielding nuts of large size and thin 

 shells, demand developed for such nuts at much higher 

 prices, frequently bringing 40 to 75 cents and in some 

 cases as high as $1.50 to $2.50 a pound. This stimu- 

 lated interest in the planting of seedling orchards grown 

 from the nuts of these high-priced varieties, with the 

 result that many thousands of such trees, mostly dating 

 to the decade 1890 7 1899, are now found in the Gulf 

 and South Atlantic states. While these seedling 

 orchards contain many productive trees yielding nuts 

 of desirable quality, few of them have proved profitable, 

 largely because of the wide variation in precocity, pro- 

 ductiveness, and disease-resistance of the trees, and in 

 the size, cracking quality, and other features of the 

 nuts, so that a large part of the present production 

 still consists of wild nuts. Reed estimated in 1912 

 ("The Pecan," Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin No. 

 251) that the annual wild crop of pecans in Texas dur- 

 ing the preceding six or eight years had varied from 

 3,645,000 to 17,820,000 pounds, the crop of that state 

 being considered approximately three-fifths of the 

 entire product. The census of 1910 reported the crop 

 of 1909 as 9,890,769 pounds, valued at $971,596. 



While no accurate statistics regarding later produc- 

 tion are available, the product of the orchards of named 

 varieties planted prior to 1905 is now gradually coming 

 to market, and may be expected to appear in rapidly 

 increasing quantity in the future, to offset the gradually 

 declining production of wild nuts resulting from the 

 destruction of trees as the fertile river-bottom lands on 

 which they stand have been brought under cultivation 

 in farm crops. 



The gradual development of power nut-cracking 

 machinery, mainly accomplished since 1900, has 

 resulted in a greatly increased demand for pecan meats 

 from confectioners, which promises to keep pace with 

 production for many years to come. These devices 

 greatly lessen the labor cost of cracking, and render 

 possible much more varied use of the nut. 



Climatic and soil requirements. 



Much confusion of thought with regard to the 

 climatic range of the pecan has resulted from failure 

 to recognize the difference in cold endurance of wild 

 trees of the species in different parts of its native range. 

 Rather early in the period of pecan exploitation, which 

 began about 1885-1890, nuts and young trees of the 

 large varieties conspicuous in the exhibits and adver- 

 tising matter of that time were planted at many points 

 in the northern states. These rather promptly suc- 

 cumbed to the winter temperatures of the North, very 

 few surviving north of the Potomac, Ohio, and Mis- 

 souri rivers. More recently, trees well worthy of propa- 

 gation because of the good size and excellent quality 

 of their nuts have been found in the surviving wild 

 groves of the Ohio and Wabash valley bottoms in 

 Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky, which give promise 

 of enduring the winters considerably farther north, and 

 which are now in process of experimental introduction. 

 On suitable soils it now appears probable that among 

 these varieties of northern origin may be found sorts 

 fairly well adapted to most of the eastern United States. 



Though practically restricted in its native distribu- 

 tion to the low-lying moist sandy loams of the river- 

 and creek-bottoms, gradually accumulated experience 

 has demonstrated the suitability under cultivation of 

 a wide range of soils. The essentials are good depth 

 and fertility, adequate drainage, and freedom from 

 drought. Shallow soils underlaid with hardpan or 

 other impervious strata and loose droughty sands are 

 unsuitable, as are mucks and peats. Occasional over- 

 flow, as experienced on creek- and river-bottom lands, 

 is beneficial, but the pecan is about as sensitive to a 

 water-logged soil condition as most orchard trees. 



While the orchards thus far planted are too young 

 to determime with accuracy, the area of profitable com- 



