6 CROPS THAT PAY. 



Pecan wood is close-grained, heavy and hard. In color it is 

 light reddish brown, with lighter brown sapwood. The layers of 

 annual growth are clearly defined. It makes excellent fuel on ac- 

 count of the brilliancy with which it burns and the ardent heat it 

 gives. Charcoal made of it is heavy, compact and long-lived. It is 

 frequently used in the manufacture of wagons, farm implements, tool 

 handles, etc. 



But, for its much-prized nuts, the pecan easily surpasses m 

 value any other tree of American nativity. These vary greatly in 

 size, shape, thickness of shell, weight and quality. Their commer- 

 cial importance is increasing yearly. At present practically the en- 

 tire pecan crop is the product of wild trees, less than five per cent., 

 it is estimated, being from cultivated groves. Texas, Louisiana and 

 Mississippi, in the order named, produce the largest quantity. Lou- 

 isiana claims to give the biggest and best nuts, and to have originated 

 the most valuable of those very large, thin-shelled varieties which it 

 is the ambition of every nut-grower to reproduce, or excel, on cul- 

 tivated trees of his own. 



From the earliest times in the South the gathering and shipping 

 of wild pecans has been found profitable; but only in recent years 

 have efforts of skilled horticulturists been directed to pecan culture 

 as an established business, with the result that the size and quality 

 of the nuts have been greatly improved and the exceeding profitable- 

 ness of the new industry clearly demonstrated. As a consequence 

 pecans are being planted, more and more, not only in those States 

 which are rightly considered the natural home of the tree, but in 

 other parts, especially in Georgia and Florida, where much capital 

 has already been invested in commercial groves. However, it is 

 only in certain favored portions of those six States nearest the Gulf 

 that natural conditions are such as to insure the largest returns from 

 an investment in pecans. 



While Louisiana was still a French possession and a territory of 

 vast and unknown extent, F. Andre-Michaux wrote in his "History 

 of the Forest Trees of North America" : 



"These nuts have a most excellent flavor. They are an article of small 

 commerce between Upper and Lower Louisiana. Prom New Orleans they 

 are exported to the West Indies, and more often, to the large cities of the United 

 States. Not only are they preferable to all those which I have, up to this 

 time, found in North America, but I believe them to possess a flavor more 

 delicate than any we have in Europe. Moreover, one sometimes finds 

 varieties of the pecan which, although wild, bear nuts whose kernels are 

 much larger than are those of any of our nut-trees, which have not been 

 cultivated. I think, therefore, that on account of its fruit, this tree merits 

 the attention of Europeans. By means of careful cultivation it is certain 

 that very good nuts would be obtained; and especially is this true when 

 one considers that our nut-trees in a wild state produce nuts ereatlv in- 

 ferior to those of the pecan." ' 



Earlier mention of the pecan is found in a narrative of travel 

 in Louisiana by Charlevoix and Le Page de Pratz, "History of Lou- 

 isiana," Vol. II., page 26: — 



"There are still other pecans whose fruit is a species of small nut 

 which one at first glance would take for the hazel-nut, since thev are of 

 the same shape and color and have shells as thin; but whatever shane and 

 size, considered as nuts, they are more delicate In flavor than our nuts 

 less oily, and of such excellent taste that the French make nralinp^i nf fh^^ 

 equal to those of the almond." ^ ^ "' ^°^™ 



