1658 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



is produced in large quantities, neces- 

 sarily so, since nmcli of it is wasted. 



Bri)Dl>G THE I'ECAN 

 Difliculties Encountered in Pecan Budding: 



•The propagation of the pecan has 

 liitlierto been one of tlie principal draw- 

 backs to the successful cultivation of 

 this nut tree. In budding and grafting 

 the percentage of successful unions in 

 the total number of plants worked has 

 been small. Much of the work of pecan 

 propagation has been along similar lines 

 to those favorable to the propagation 

 of well-understood subjects, such as 

 the apple, peach and other fruit trees. 

 Consequently the pecan has earned 

 the reputation of being difficult to work 

 on stocks of the same or allied species. 

 This is not to be wondered at, as mis- 

 takes are very easily made in the selec- 

 tion of working material, time of operat- 

 ing, etc. 



The principal trouble encountered in 

 pecan budding is due to the selection of 

 wrong material from the tree to be prop- 

 agated. By the use of a method which 

 has been devised for budding the pecan 

 and the selection of one-year-old buds the 

 outlook is good for very successful prop- 

 agation. It will be seen where some of 

 the trouble lies if the budding of the 

 peach is compared with that of the pecan. 

 In the case of the former a shoot of the 

 current year's growth will by the latter 

 part of August give a very large number 

 of buds which can be worked success- 

 fully. This is not the case with the 

 pecan. 



Why the Pecan Should Be Budded 



It has been ascertained that seedlings 

 from nuts of the choice varieties do not 

 come true, resembling in this particular 

 many of our popular fruit trees. Many 

 of these seedling pecans bear nuts not 

 much superior to the common wild 

 forms. After waiting several years for 

 the seedling trees to bear, this naturally 

 causes the grower a good deal of dis- 

 appointment. So, necessarily, as with 

 apples, peaches and other fruits, the only 



• Cnndpnsed from Bureau Plant Industry 

 Bnlletln .38. 



way in which the choice varieties of the 

 pecan can with certainty be perpetuated 

 in a manner to permit of being handled 

 by dealers, is by budding or grafting on 

 seedling stocks. 



Raising Seedling Stocks 



Up to the present time it has not been 

 demonstrated that there is a better stock 

 for the reception of buds or grafts of the 

 pecan than seedling stocks of the same 

 species. In raising pecan seedlings for 

 stocks it is advisable to select seeds from 

 trees at the northern limit of the pecan 

 belt. 



The seed nuts should be secured as 

 early as possible after they are ripe, and, 

 late in the fall, stratified. For this pur- 

 pose it is most convenient to use boxes, 

 say three feet long, one foot wide and 

 three inches deep. A mixture of sand 

 and ashes in about equal proportions is 

 a good medium in which to imbed the 

 nuts. A layer of this material one inch 

 thick should be placed in the bottom of 

 a box, then a layer of pecans as close 

 together as possible. It is not advisable 

 to put more than a single layer in a box, 

 because of the brittle nature of the root, 

 the nuts being somewhat irregular in 

 sprouting. Each box is then filled with 

 the sand and ashes, and all the boxes 

 used should be piled together to a con- 

 venient height. They should occupy a 

 sheltered position out of doors and be 

 covered with a considerable thickness of 

 straw, mats or old sacking until the nuts 

 show signs of germinating, which will 

 usually occur toward the end of April. 

 To give facilities for inserting the buds 

 on the north side of the seedling stocks, 

 the nuts are then planted in rows run- 

 ning east and west. The rows should 

 be three feet apart and the nuts placed 

 five inches apart in the row. It is not 

 possible the first season to raise seed- 

 lings which are large enough to be used 

 as stocks, but in order to secure a good, 

 stout growth, so as to have them large 

 enough for working the second season, 

 the soil should be deeply worked with a 

 plow, rolled, and when necessary har- 

 rowed several times until it is well pul- 



