CHAPTER IX 



COMMERCIAL CBACKERIES AND STORAGE 

 OF PECANS 



The cracking of pecans on a commercial scale has developed 

 rapidly in recent years. According to Robert E. Woodson, 

 St. Lonis, Missouri, the commercial shelling of pecans was 

 begun by the Barnhart Mercantile Company in 1884."^ At 

 this time a hammer Avith a block of lead as a base was "used 

 for cracking the nnts. There was small demand for pecan 

 kernels until 1889, the year Woodson invented a cracking 

 machine which was operated with one hand and fed with 

 the other. It was fifteen years later that he invented a 

 power-driven, automatic, self-feeding machine for cracking 

 large quantities of pecans. Follomng this, other crack- 

 ing machines were invented and are working successfully 

 today. 



In operating one of the most common types of automatic 

 power-driven machines, the nuts are poured into a hopper 

 through which rotates an endless-chain belt with cups or 

 projections just large enough to pick up and carry one nut 

 each over into a slot of the machine. A piston-like rod 

 working automatically in the slot brings pressure on the 

 ends of the nut, which cracks it. The nut is then released 

 into a receptacle below with a minimum of broken kernels. 



^ Proceedings Nat. Nut Growers' Assoc, 1913. 



138 



