Harvesting and Yields of Pecans 127 



each band are reduced by one-sixteenth of an inch as the 

 upper end is approached, where the perforations are only ten- 

 sixteenths of an inch across. The nuts are fed in at the upper 

 end of the cylinder and passed through by gravity. They fall 

 through the perforations into grades differing one-sixteenth 

 of an inch in the smallest diameter and are held separately 

 in bins below. Those nuts measuring one inch or more in 

 diameter pass through the drum and are collected into a bin 

 to themselves (see Plate VIII). 



The other type, more recently introduced, grades the nuts 

 by oppositely rotating rods not quite parallel. To each of 

 these is fastened spirally a half-round or hemispherical rod 

 which causes the nuts, as they come from the hopper above, 

 to travel along between the rods until the latter are far enough 

 apart for the nuts to fall through into the proper bins accord- 

 ing to the least diameter of the nuts, just as is accomplished 

 by the revolving drum grader. 



"Wild seedling pecans, as they come from the forest, are 

 so very variable in color and markings, as well as in size 

 and shape, that some dealers have followed the practice of 

 polishing or burnishing so as to give them a more uniform 

 appearance. This is especially true of the seedling pecans 

 imported from Mexico, which are often labeled Texas seed- 

 lings, and as they are inferior they tend to discredit the 

 real Texas pecan. The nuts are put into churn-like receptacles 

 which are revolved, rolling the nuts over and over and rub- 

 bing them together, until their natural markings are largely 

 obliterated and their surfaces smooth and polished. This work 

 was begun on a commercial scale by E. C. Koerber at Austin, 

 Texas, a few years prior to 1896, the business afterwards being 

 moved to New York City. In some instances the practice has 



