40 CROPS THAT PAY. 



When one year old trees are planted the first crop of ^2= will 

 come in the second year ; when cuttings are planted, in the third year. 

 With cotton for interculture, giving annual crops, needing the kma 

 of cultivation most beneficial to the growing pecan trees, and tig 

 trees beginning to bear paying crops in the third year, such an 

 orchard would be profitable from the very start— very profitable, 

 indeed, if capably administered in connection with a canning 

 factory controlled by the same management. There is a number ot 

 marketable forms in which figs and pecans are prepared, separately 

 and combined and there exists no good business reason why the 

 grower of these crops on a large scale should not be manufacturer, 

 too, put up the entire product of his own orchard, and gain t"^''s°>' 

 much additional profit. Of course, in an orchard of this kind the 

 growing of cotton would have to be discontinued when the pecanj 

 begin to bear; and the fig trees would have to be thinned out and 

 eventually all removed, but this would be only after many yean, 

 when the pecan trees become so large as to require all the ground. 



The planting distance of fig trees varies greatly, depending on 

 kind of soil and variety grown. From 50 trees to the acre to 200, 

 or more, are approved by growers ; the larger number being recom- 

 mended for light soil. Planted 30 feet apart, there would be 50 trees 

 to the acre, permitting unhampered interculture ; or the same num- 

 ber could be planted on an acre among pecan trees with the inten- 

 tion of thinning out the fig trees at the proper time. 



A bushel per tree for each year after the second is a common way 

 to estimate the yield of figs. That is i bushel in the third year, 2 

 bushels in the fourth, and so on with the maximum yield in the loth 

 or i2th year. The well informed assert that the first ten crops, from 

 third to twelfth year, inclusive, should average 150 pounds per tree 

 each year, and this is really a very conservative estimate when all 

 conditions favor the best results. There are old trees which bear 

 from 500 to 1,000 pounds each. 



A well known canning company has made a standing offer of five 

 cents a pound for all the fresh figs it can get, although the general 

 practice of canners has been to buy on the market and pay consider- 

 ably more than this price when figs were not plentiful. From an 

 unquestioned authority comes this statement : "Five cents a pound 

 is low and affords big profits when preserved. Any canning factory 

 will pay this — bone fide." 



Allowances should always be made when estimating for the 

 guidance of investors. In view of the facts, as above, a statement 

 of profit obtainable from fig growing would be thought reasonable 

 if based on planting 100 trees to the acre, yielding an average of 

 150 pounds per tree, at 5 cents a pound. But at the risk of erring 

 on the safe side the following table of yield and income is based on 

 so trees to the acre, an average of only 94,5 pounds per tree, and 4 

 cents a pound for the product : 



