PECAN 



PECAN 



2519 



mercial planting will, from present indications, be 

 south of Pennsylvania and Iowa with some probability 

 of success under irrigation in the Southwest and in the 

 great valley of California. 



Propagation and top-working. 



Few of the earlier efforts to perpetuate trees bearing 

 superior nuts by budding and grafting were successful, 

 the methods commonly practised with fruit-trees in 

 the Gulf States not proving effective with the pecan. 

 Because of this, most of the plantings prior to 1900 were 

 of seedling trees grown from selected parents, even 

 where orchards as large as 500 acres were involved. 



Occasionally skilful propagators succeeded in secur- 

 ing fair stands with crown-, trunk- and top-grafting, 

 however, and some by annular-, patch- and chip- 

 budding, so that by 1895 there were a number of 





2824. Top-budded pecan. Four years after the operation. 



budded and grafted trees of several choice varieties 

 growing in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas and a 

 few nurseries offering such trees for sale. 



The earliest successful grafting was by Antoine, a 

 slave gardener, on Oak Alley Plantation, St. James 

 Parish, Louisiana, who, under the instruction of his 

 owner, the late Telesphqre J. Roman, in 1846 or 1847 

 succeeded in trunk-grafting sixteen trees of the variety 

 later named the Centennial (Fig. 2823). Somewhat 

 later he propagated 110 more trees of the same variety, 

 so that 126 grafted trees of this variety were growing 

 on that plantation at the end of the Civil War. About 

 1877, the late Emil Bourgeois, of Central, Louisiana, 

 successfully top-grafted the variety now known as the 

 Van Deman upon his Rapidan Plantation in the same 

 parish, while in 1882 the Rome and Frotscher, as well 

 as Centennial, were propagated by Wm. Nelson in 

 the nursery of the late Richard Frotscher at New 

 Orleans from the original trees in St. James and Iberia 

 parishes. In 1886, the variety now known as Stuart 



160 



2825. Cleft-grafting. Successive steps 

 in the operation: a and b, views of the 

 cion; c, cross-section of the cion, thicker 

 on one side; d, the cion in place and 

 the stock securely tied to prevent split- 

 ting; e, the union covered with grafting 

 wax; /, outer wrapping securely held 

 with string. 



was successfully budded by the- late A. G. Delmas on 

 his place at Pascagoula, Mississippi, from the original 

 tree of that sort on the Castanera place near by. 



Successful top-working of wild trees was accomplished 

 by E. E. Risien, of San Saba, Texas, about 1889. He 

 transformed a num- 

 ber of such trees 

 by cutting back 

 heavily in late win- 

 ter with a cross-cut 

 saw, practically be- 

 heading trees of 

 diameters up to 12 

 to 15 inches at 

 points 20 to 30 feet 

 from the ground. 

 An abundant 

 growth of strong 

 shoots was secured 

 by hacking the bark 

 of the trunk for 

 some distance down 

 from the stubs. A 

 sufficient number of 

 the best of these 

 shoots were budded 

 in July by the 

 annular method 

 quickly to develop 

 a symmetrical top. 

 The San Saba va- 

 riety was chiefly 

 used, the original 

 tree of this stand- 

 ing on Risien's place 

 (Fig. 2824). 



Although most 

 early efforts failed, 

 as propagators have acquired experience in pecan-prop- 

 agation most of the methods of budding and grafting 

 practised on the apple and pear have been found to 

 succeed, so that at the present time practically all 

 except shield-budding are more or less practised. The 

 methods most commonly used by nurserymen are ordi- 

 nary cleft- and whip-grafting, and annular-, patch-, and 

 chip-budding. 



While there has been 

 much discussion of other 

 stocks for the pecan and 

 considerable individual 

 experimentation with 

 mockernut (Carya alba), 

 pignut (Carya glabra), 

 and water-hickory (Carya 

 aquatica), commercial nur-' 

 sery propagation is practi- 

 cally all upon pecan 

 stocks. Nuts from trees 

 of vigorous growth, yield- 

 ing well-filled kernels, are 

 preferred for seed and 

 should be from a region at 

 least as far north as that 

 where trees are to be 

 planted to insure stocks 

 of sufficient cold -endur- 

 ance. Nuts for seed should 

 not be permitted to dry out . 

 before planting in fall, or, 

 if spring-planted, should 

 be stratified in moist sand 

 soon after harvest. Soil ^f WhiP - grafting- Early 

 >r the nursery should be % ^JTS^ VSA 

 rich, deep, Enable, and stock md cion proper iy cut; c, 

 well drained, as the con- stock and cion in position and 

 trol of growth during the ready for wrapping. 



