CHAPTER VIII 

 HARVESTING AND YIELDS OF PECANS 



In the process of harvesting, the pecan will withstand 

 rougher handling than almost any other fruit. However, 

 care and intelligence must be practiced if profitable returns 

 from the crop are to be expected. 



No very expensive equipment is necessary for harvesting 

 pecans. Some growers advocate step-ladders for picking the 

 nuts from young trees by hand, but the common practice 

 is to knock the nuts off the trees with long bamboo poles. 

 When the trees are too high to be reached from the ground, 

 it is necessary that they be climbed and the nuts knocked off 

 with a bamboo pole by the operator, who moves from limb 

 to limb so as to place himself within reach of the nuts. In 

 flaying the nuts, they should be tapped lightly so as to do 

 the least possible damage to the limbs of the tree. Large 

 trees branching far above the ground may necessitate a ladder 

 to assist the harvester in climbing to the first limbs. Heavy 

 canvas bags or ordinary fertilizer bags that have been washed 

 clean, with straps to go over the shoulders of the pickers, are 

 satisfactory receptacles in which to put the nuts as they are 

 gathered (See Plate VII). 



Some growers use two large canvas sheets, spread parallel 

 to each other on each side of the tree to catch the nuts as they 

 fall. Where rank-growing perennial cover-croi)s such as the 



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