PECAN 



PECAN 



2521 



removed later. In working over-grown nursery seed- 

 lings and stout wildings, this has been found to be 

 an excellent plan. With good workmanship and favor- 

 able weather conditions, excellent savings may be 

 had, and the bud shoots make a beautiful upright 

 growth, with the slightest crook at the point of 

 union. And, oddly enough, they grow straight with- 

 out stakes to support them, even in a windy country. 

 Buds put on in March and April on nursery stocks 

 easily make a salable tree with 4 to 6 feet of bud-growth 

 the same season in Texas. In summer work, the modi- 

 fied shield-bud may be peeled from the cion, but it is 

 well to cut them to beveled edges on the sides (D, Fig. 

 2832) before removing from the cion. The bark of the 

 stock fits down over them more snugly when so treated 

 and they seem to live better. But the lower ends should 

 always be so trimmed as to remove the fleshy rim of 

 bark at the lower end, in order that the inner bark of 

 the bud and the inner bark of the stock may be brought 

 into contact. The flaps of bark folding down over the 

 bud should always be pared down, so that the waxed 

 wrappers may fit 'close and exclude those pestiferous 

 little insects that get in under other forms of wrapper 

 and destroy so many buds. 

 Another thing requiring 

 eternal vigilance is to be 

 sure that sap is flowing more 

 freely in the stocks than in 

 the budwood." 



Distance, method of planting, 

 and cultivation. 



The large size of the tree 

 and the lack of any suitable 

 dwarfing stock render wider 

 planting necessary than for 

 other orchard trees. Many 

 of the earlier orchards were 

 spaced at 40 or 50 feet, with 

 some planted as close as 25 

 feet, with a view to thin- 

 ning out to 50 feet after some 

 years of bearing. Accumu- 

 lated experience indicates 

 that upon all soils suitable 

 for the pecan, a distance 

 of 60 feet will be required 

 before the age of maxi- 

 mum productiveness 

 is reached, and that closer 



planting than this is inadvisable unless in sections where 

 growth of trees thirty years old and upward indicates 

 that closer distances will not involve harmful crowding 

 and shading, to which the pecan as a nut-bearer is 

 peculiarly sensitive. Well-ripened trees two years 

 from the bud or graft are preferred by most planters 

 and 24 to 30 inches of tap-root is retained in trans- 

 planting. In the Gulf States, planting is usually done 

 during the winter months and completed by February, 

 to insure thorough settling of earth and callusing of 

 roots before growth starts. Special care to prevent 

 drying put during shipment and handling is necessary, 

 protection against sun and wind and thorough soaking 

 of roots before planting being advisable. 



Holes should be of ample size, 6 to 8 inches deeper 

 than the roots require, and be filled in at bottom with 

 good top-soil. Fertilizer should not be in contact 

 with roots. 



The unsatisfactory behavior of close-planted orchards 

 and the necessity of deriving profit from the land dur- 

 ing the six to twelve years before the trees come into 

 bearing have given rise to varied practice in inter- 

 cropping. Peaches, Satsuma oranges, truck crops, 

 cotton, corn, and the like, are used in various sections. 

 It is essential on most soils to maintain good culti- 

 vation throughout the growing season. This is satis- 



2831. Chip- or "dormant" 

 budding, a, The bud stick; b, 

 the bud ready for insertion; 

 c, the bud inserted in the 

 matrix of the stock ; d, the bud 

 securely tied in place. 



factorily accomplished with cotton, corn, truck crops, 

 cowpeas or other tilled crops, provided fertility is 

 maintained by adequate fertilizer application and 

 plowing in of leguminous cover-crops. The laying 

 down of pecan orchards in Bermuda-grass for pasture 

 or mowing even on the deep moist soils of the Missis- 

 sippi Delta has invariably been followed by stunting 

 of growth and lessened productiveness of trees. The 

 use of winter cover-crops such as hairy vetch and bur 

 clover for plowing under in spring has everything to 

 commend it. 



Harvesting and marketing. 



The preferred practice in harvesting is to permit 

 the nuts to fall as the hulls open, gathering frequently 

 to prevent soiling by contact with the ground. As the 

 efficiency of this method is largely dependent on the 

 continuance of clear and reasonably dry weather 

 throughout the harvest season, it is usually necessary 

 gently to "thresh" the later-maturing portion of the 

 crop from the trees with bamboo or other light poles. 

 Premature threshing results both in an immature 

 quality of crop and in injury 

 to the trees through the 

 breaking off of fruit-spurs. 

 After gathering, the nuts 

 should be cured by storing 

 in a cool dry place for two 

 or three weeks, during which 

 time there is some loss of 

 weight by evaporation of 

 moisture, after which they 

 are ready for marketing. 



A considerable portion of 

 the wild crop is washed and 

 polished by friction in re- 

 volving barrels or drums. 

 Some tinting of the nuts 

 with dye is also practised. 

 While polishing and tinting 

 are not in themselves harm- 

 ful, they have so frequently 

 been used to conceal infe- 

 riority of damaged or stale 

 nuts and such as are imma- 

 ture that discriminating 

 purchasers show preference 

 for the nuts in their natural 

 state. This is specially true 

 with regard to the prod- 

 uct of the named varie- 

 ties, which is coming to be sold on known varietal 

 merit as to cracking quality, plumpness of kernel, 

 flavor, and the like. While the product of cultivated 

 orchards still constitutes but a small proportion of the 

 market supply, it is destined to early and considerable 

 increase. 



Marketing by parcel post direct to consumers is 

 coming into practice and cooperative selling by growers' 

 associations is being undertaken to some extent. 



Prices of wild nuts have risen considerably in recent 

 years as the result of increased demand from commer- 

 cial crackers. Prices of the leadiag orchard varieties, 

 though gradually receding from the fictitious and 

 novelty values of the exploitation period, range from 

 30 to 50 cents a pound wholesale, with good demand, 

 and retail at 50 to 75 cents in most markets. 



Varieties. 



The fact that until about 1900 there were few nursery- 

 men able to propagate the pecan by budding and graft- 

 ing, coupled with the very high prices received for 

 choice nuts from certain individual trees, stimulated 

 the sale of nuts from such trees under varietal names 

 for the planting of seedling orchards throughout the 

 Gulf States. This was true to a large extent with regard 



2832. The crown-graft or 

 -bud. A, B, C, the cion; D, 

 cion trimmed at point; E, stock 

 ready to receive the cion; F, 

 cion in place; G, H, the work 

 completely protected by waxed 

 cloth. 



