CHAPTER III 



PEC AX SEEDLIXGS AXD CAFE OF THE 

 NATIVE GROVE 



A CONSERVATIVE estimate of the total number of seedling 

 pecan trees, both native and planted by man, in the United 

 States, is from seventy-five to one hundred million. 



In Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana the native 

 pecan has become of considerable conmiercial value as a 

 nut-producing tree. It is estimated that in Texas alone 

 there are between fifty and seventy-five million native 

 seedling trees, which produced, according to the 1920 census, 

 16,803,543 pounds of nuts in 1919 in spite of almost total 

 neglect. 



When the states containing native pecan timber were first 

 settled by the pioneers, little care was taken to protect these 

 trees. The nuts were of almost no commercial value at that 

 time and for many years afterward. The pecan timber was 

 often destroyed with other native growth in clearing the 

 land along the creeks and rivers, which was generally the first 

 to be cleared on account of its natural richness. Thus millions 

 of native trees, probably including many that w^ould have 

 become valuable varieties, were destroyed without regard to 

 the character of the nuts produced. These trees always made 

 a stubborn resistance against the hand of the invader, con- 

 tinuing to send up sprouts annually often for a period as 

 long as fifteen or twenty years. In a few^ cases, these sprouts 



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