6 Pecan-Growing 



Bradford, Pennsylvania, Auburn, Syracuse, and Watertown, 

 New York, skirting the northern shore of Ontario, through 

 Detroit, dipping down to the northern edge of Indiana, thence 

 back to the forty-third parallel through Grand Rapids and 

 Milwaukee, bearing a southwesterly direction in a line with 

 Trinidad, Colorado. This belt embraces a large section of the 

 Middle AVest. While this region will never, in all probability, 

 be used for large commercial growing of pecans, plantings for 

 home orchards and ornamental purposes are ad\dsable. 



The western belt, which is embraced in west Texas, is in a 

 class by itself. Its physical conformation and semi-arid 

 climate give conditions for pecan-growing s;omewhat different 

 from those in the other belts. East Texas belongs to the south- 

 ern belt, and the Gulf coast varieties thrive there. However, 

 in the western pecan section of Texas, varieties that originated 

 in that semi-arid climate, such as Burkett, Halbert, Oliver, 

 San Saba, Onliwon, Texas Prolific, and Western Schley, seem 

 to grow best. Central Texas shades from the southern belt on 

 the east to the western belt as it approaches the ranges of hills 

 on the west. A large percentage of the pecans that Texas 

 furnishes the world come from the western belt. There 

 are eighty-one pecan-producing counties in this belt. Rising 

 in Young and Jackson counties and extending southward to 

 San Antonio are broad ranges of hills often having the dignity 

 of the term mountain. It is in the little valleys between these 

 hills that the pecan delights to grow. Here the soil is very 

 rich and of great depth, having been built up for thousands 

 of years by erosion from the mountains. The altitude is from 

 800 to 2,500 feet and the annual rainfall from 18 to 30 inches. 

 The trees are low in stature with short intemodes and low 

 branching heads. 



