TOP-WORKING SEEDLING PECAN TREES 



BY W. N. HUTT, HORTICULTURIST. 



According to a census we have just completed, there are in this State 

 upwards of 50,000 seedling pecan trees. These trees range in age from 

 one to thirty years. Seventy-five per cent of them are of bearing age, 

 but there is probably not 1 per cent of that number that are profitable 

 bearing trees. In all parts of the pecan country experience has shown 

 that seedling pecans are notably slow in coming into bearing, and some 

 trees never bear at all. Those that do bear have nuts that are almost 

 invariably small, thick-shelled, and of indifferent quality. In this 

 respect, however, the pecan tree differs in no way from any of our other 

 classes of fruits. No one would to-day be so foolish as to try to get a 

 good peach or apple orchard by planting the seeds of these fruits; but 

 this is just what a great many people have been trying to do with 

 pecans. 



This attempt to produce pecan orchards from seed has been the origin 

 of the 50,000 trees noted in the census above. Now that we have these 

 seedling pecan trees, are they of any value at all? Can we make any- 

 thing out of them whatever, or must we cut them down and charge up 

 the expenses to the account of experience, and start over again with 

 standard varieties of budded and grafted trees? Years of time and 

 quantities of money have been spent in producing these beautiful but 

 comparatively valueless seedling trees. However, they are far from 

 being a total loss, for in those deep roots and stalwart trunks and spread- 

 ing branches there are latent possibilities in abundance. If by some 

 magic power like that of Aladdin's wonderful lamp told of in the Tales 

 of the Arabian Nights, we could transform these seedling trees in a 

 single night to standard varieties, we would enrich every owner of pecan 

 trees by hundreds of dollars, and the aggregate wealth of the State 

 would be increased by millions. 



For several years I have been in search of Aladdin's wonderful lamp 

 to enlighten me how to effect this felicitous transformation. Like Alad- 

 din's quest of old, the search has been long and wearisome and has led 

 me a tedious road through many vexatious disappointments ; but at last 

 I have found the lamp! I have in my power the magic by which a 

 worthless seedling pecan tree can be transformed into a productive 

 standard variety. This magic talisman is simply patch budding. 



