873 



-sonable therefore to expect a continuation of the demand for 

 lar^e ^oft-shelled nuts at fairly remunerative prices for years 



"to com j, and few investments promise larger profits in the 

 future, especially to a young- man, than an orchard of selected 

 pecans, well cared for up to bearing. 



SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND A NOTE OF WARNING. 



There is no doubt bat that a pecnn orchard, small or 

 large, would be a source of great pleasure and considerable 

 profit when established near the farm or plantation home. 

 They commence to bear a few nuts at nine or ten years of 

 age, and at fifteen should be bearing good crops. But unless 

 the person who starts the orchard is deeply interested and 

 very painstaking, he should patronize a reliable and well es- 

 tablished pecan nursery, and not attempt to propagate h'isown 

 pecans. Probably on the average, from thirty to forty per 

 cent of the buds and grafts fail to take, and the stock IKS to 

 be reworked. So, unless one has an abundance of stock 

 wo ;ked, from which to select, time will be lost in obtaining a 

 good stand. When budded or grafted trees are obtained from 

 a reliable nurseryman, they may be depended upon to pro- 

 duce desirable nuts. Also, they may be set easily, and a good 

 stand obtained all at once, thus saving much valuable time. 



It takes practice to bud and graft successfully, and al- 

 though the operation is a simple one, there are a number of 

 little things to be done, which are apt to escape the attention 

 of one not accustomed to the work, and prove fatal to the life of 

 the bud. Consequently, in order to emphasize this point, it 

 is repeated that a careless person should not enter the work of 

 propagating varieties of pecans, for in order to do this, bud- 

 di jg and grafting must be done, as pecans do not produce true 

 from seed. Again, only trustworthy nuiserymen should be 

 patronized, and there are several to be found in this State. 

 The heavy demand for desirable varieties of pecans, has led 

 many unscrupulous persons to enter the pecan nursery busi- 

 ness in name only, and these people send out anything tkat 

 .<even looks like a young pecan tree, giye it either the name of 

 a well-established variety or a new one, and sell it at a high 

 .price. The people who buy these trees are cheated out of 



