PECAN PLANTING IN MEMPHIS 



BY MARTA SCOTT CONSER 



HAVING grown up where the sands of the 

 prairie meet the woodland clay, and where 

 land was valuable, I learned not only to love 

 trees but to classify them according to their value. 

 To the right was a luxuriant growth of hickory, wal- 

 nut, sugar maple, besides the fine orchards. To the 

 left was no natural growth of trees, but such a healthy 

 growth of thrifty farmers with homes so beautifully 

 set in backgrounds of towering orchards of nut and 

 fruit trees that camera men loved to come along and 

 take their pictures. 



VARIETIES OF PECANS 



Coming to 

 Memphis I pro- 

 ceeded t o talk 

 about the pecan 

 as the most beau- 

 t i f u 1, valuable, 

 strongest - rooted 

 and longest-lived 

 tree of the South. 



Stuart. 



Bass Papershell. 



1 pictured the gran- 

 deur of a view from 

 one of our big trust 

 buildings of spring- 

 time green, of prom- 

 ising bloom, and de- 

 licious nuts, if only 

 all of our trees were pecans that nut 

 candy, nut cakes, nut salad and nut 

 bread might be plentiful as yellow 

 yams. They began to listen and I 

 was invited to speak in and out of the 

 city. 



I pointed out a relation between pe- 

 cans and everything that makes for 



the good of Memphis. To the child, pecan tree planting on 

 public property means pleasure in gathering and eating the 

 nuts. It means health, for pecans are of great food value. 

 A spirit of 

 American inde- 

 pendence is 

 early instilled 

 when the child 

 can gather and 

 sell pecans in 

 the local market 

 to buy his books 

 and clothes. For 

 the benefit of 

 the town offi- 

 cials I figured 

 how our 700 

 miles of pike, 

 that cost the 

 county $1,750,- 

 000, if planted 

 to pecan trees 

 every fifty feet 

 on each side 

 would bring, at 

 the lowest esti- 

 mate of $60 a tree, an annual income of $8,870,000. Church 

 workers were reminded that in the early Biblical times it 



was commanded of armies that 

 they should lay not the ax at the 

 trees of the cities besieged "for 

 the trees are man's life." 



Everybody was interested and 

 kind, but I soon found that 

 speeches planted no pecan trees. 

 I appealed to the School Board, 

 five good men 

 a 1 1 university 

 graduates, and 

 of course, they 

 agreed to co- 

 operate. D r . 

 Kincannon, the 

 superintendent, 



WHAT ONE TREE CAN PRODUCE 



Crop of nuts from a bred-up pecan tree after having 

 been set out for six years. The owner of this tree 

 realized $39 from the sale of the crop here pictured. 



PAPER SHELLED PECANS 

 These nuts command a good price in the market and have high food value as well 

 as delicious taste. The pecan tree is declared to be the most valuable and longest 

 lived tree in the South. 



Frotcher's Eggshell 



had seen land 

 values rise 

 from seven 

 dollars to two 

 thousand dol- 

 lars after a 

 growth of pe- 

 cans, and he 



Success 



109 



