— 156 — 



Cultivation of the thin-shell pecan has largely increased their yield, 

 their size, their quality, and flavor of the nut, and every such endeavor 

 has increased confidence in its future, and the pecan will lead the list 

 of the valuable nuts of the United States. For instance: I know of 

 one wild pecan tree which is situated in the bottom along one of our 

 rivers, yet hundreds of feet away from the water, but in a cotton field 

 which is cultivated every year, that has borne nuts for six years in 

 succession and earned its owner an average of over $50 per annum. 

 This tree has had no care but the cultivation of the crop under it. An- 

 other tree here within the city limits but fifteen years old, year before 

 last the owner says bore eleven and one half (11^ ) bushels of fine large 

 pecans. 



In the discussions of your Board are some statements made which 

 need correcting. On page 331, Judge Heath says, speaking of Texas 

 and Louisiana: "Wherever you find the pecan it is on the river bottom, 

 next to the water, where it stands with its roots in the water." "You 

 will never find any of these trees prospering except close along side of 

 the river bottom, or where the river overflows the bottom land. There 

 they grow luxuriantly." 



Mr. Williams also says, speaking of the pecan in Texas: "They grow 

 there with the roots submerged in water for three or four months of the 

 year." My answer is, as far as these gentlemen go they are correct, but by 

 a little inquiry or observation they would have other facts, which would 

 have been helpful. How came those pecans growing on the river bank? 

 None of them were ever planted by man's hand. Years ago they were 

 washed down the streams and were lodged in the overflow of the banks. 

 The next rise of water carried other nuts farther from the banks, they 

 took root where they lodged, and so on as the higher waters carried the 

 nuts still farther away these also found lodgment in mother earth, per- 

 haps a half mile away from the river bed, and these trees are bearing 

 nuts in as great abundance as those on the river bank. These trees 

 have had no surface water near them it may be for years, except from 

 the rains. The streams in Texas rise rapidly and as quickly go back to 

 their beds, and only exceptionally do they spread far from their banks. 

 The secret of their growth is, the soil is alluvial and the tap-root, which 

 is the life of the tree, goes for moisture even if twenty feet deep. This 

 the pecan will do if a thousand feet from the water in the stream. 

 Also, during the summer the beds of most of our creeks and rivers are 

 dry, yet it seems to make no difference with the pecan, on the banks or 

 farther away. 



The statement made by the gentlemen leaves the impression that to 

 make a successful growth, the pecan roots must be in the water close 

 along the bank. Such is not the case. To all appearance and results 

 of crop, those long distances away seem to thrive as well as those on the 

 river bank. 



So far as I know, with here and there an exception, man has had 

 little or nothing to do with the planting of pecans here. Nature has 

 done most of it and the pecans have grown along the streams where 

 they were left by the water. Experience shows that no wild nut-tree 

 responds more generously to cultivation and care, and where they have 

 been planted in groves promise grand results, especially so where the 

 land is cultivated in crops, the cultivation of which benefits the trees. 

 A great deal has been learned about the pecan within the past eight 



