20 Pecan-Growing 



nuts of the varieties Biediger, Grant, and Idlewild. John S. 

 Horlbeck, of Charleston, South Carolina, set out 1,000 acres 

 to seedling trees in 1890. An orchard of 150 seedling trees 

 was started at Federalsburg, Maryland, and in Illinois plant- 

 ings of fifteen to twenty-five acres were common. At Dan- 

 ville, New York, an orchard of forty or fifty trees was 

 attempted and at Martinez, California, 600 trees w^ere planted 

 on the farm of the late Richard J. Strentzel. 



Fortunately for the pecan industry, Emil Bourgeois of St. 

 James Parish, Louisiana, revived in 1877 the idea of propagat- 

 ing pecans by grafting, and inaugurated a new^ era in the 

 industry. Bourgeois cut cions from a highly valued tree 

 growing on the plantation of the late Duminie Mire, and suc- 

 ceeded in getting eleven cions to grow out of the twenty-two 

 that he set as top-grafts on seedling trees. When these grafts 

 began bearing, he commenced propagating young trees for 

 planting in orchards and for sale to the nearby planters. This 

 variety was later named the Van Deman.^ 



It was William Nelson, however, who first propagated 

 pecans on an extensive commercial scale. He first offered 

 them for sale in 1882. He Avas associated with Richard 

 Frotscher, of New Orleans, in the nursery business. Centen- 

 nial, Frotscher, and Rome were the first budded and grafted 

 varieties offered for sale. All three of these were catalogued 

 by Frotscher in 1885.^ 



In 1883, Chas. E. Pabst, of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, 

 established the Ocean Springs pecan nursery, and was the 

 first in his state to sell grafted stock. He was followed by 

 W. R. Stuart and about ten years later by G. M. Bacon of 

 DeWitt, Georgia, by P. J. Berckmans of Augusta, and later 



^Wm. A. Taylor, Promising New Fruit, Yearbook, Dept. Agr. 



