THE PECAN 
THE PECAN 
THE PECAN 
Some of tlie .Members of the Natioiiiil Nu( (irouers' AsNo<>iatioii and Visitor's at a Barheeiie on the Kan<-h of !Mr. S. r. Kowf, Wliiirton, 'IVxas, Noveniher 7. Il>i;i. In the Ba<'k«:rouncl of This I'iettire Is a Native Peeau Grove 
Sliowing^ Trees as Thej' <irow in the Native Forests. Tliese Trees Are Heavily Draped With Spanish ->Ioss and at the Time tlie rhotoi^rapli Was .Made Bore a (UhmI <'rop of Nuts. Fr<)ni 90 to 05 
I*er Cent of tlie l*e<'ans of Conimeree Come From W ild Trees. The Seeond I'erson to the I..eft Is Seeretary of AKrienltnre. Kone, of Texas. 
Pecan Growing— A New Industry" 
NINETY-FIVE per cent of the improved 
varieties of i)ecans now growing have been 
set within the last ten years. While the 
industry was first begun with seedlings as a 
basis, yet modern research has discovered how to 
bud and graft trees, and no one would now think 
any more of putting out a commercial orchard of 
pecan seedlings than he would an orchard of 
seedling peach or apple trees. Throughout 
the pecan belt are individual trees that are worth 
from •S.oOO to SI, 000 each, based on an 8 per 
cent annual income on this amount. .\ tree 
yielding an average crop of S50 worth of nuts i)er 
year, allowing .|10 for gathering and marketing 
them, is well worth $500, this being 8 per cent 
net of that amount. Some of the trees referred 
to in this booklet have produced an income of 
$100 jjer year, and that, too, with a minimum 
expenditure of time and energy. The conclusion 
is inevitable even were the price of nuts one- 
fourth what it is now; and he who fails to set 
at least a few pecan trees is neglecting a splended 
opj)ortuiiity both for pleasin-e and profit. They 
are easily grown. They are as healthy as any 
fruit tree. Why not make every village and 
country home in the pecan belt beautiful with 
trees, and the pockets of their owners rejoice from 
a satisfaction of fullness.^ 
As An Investment 
THE following is taken from the President's 
address to the National Nut Growers' 
Association in 1909: "The ])ecan in parti- 
cular is an unknown quantity to the people of the 
world. This generation and the next will pass 
before it is likely that this queen of nuts will be 
known to the world. When and wherever it has 
been introduced it has held its own. When the 
wheat and corn fields of the West cease to be 
l)rofitable, when there is no longer a demand for 
the fleecy staple of the South, and when the 
spindles of our factories lie idle because there is 
no need for their products, then, and not until 
then, need the pecan groovers fear for their 
industry." 
Overdoing 
THE following is taken from an article in The 
Country Gentleman, entitled, "Will There 
be a Pecan Avalanche?" "There is little 
doubt that the demand already exists. A recent 
article in this paper explaining the quality of 
pecans brought many inquiries from northern 
readers who wanted to know where fine nuts 
could be bought in consumer lots. Experience 
with tlie limited crops of paper-shell ])ecans thus 
far grown proves that they make their way 
wherever introduced. There need be no anxiety 
about tlie size of the crop, for the consumption of 
nuts increases at a remarkable rate. Every 
improvement in quality, and the making of nuts 
easier to eat by machine cracking, simply serve 
to increase prices and importations. The more 
nuts there are the more people eat, and the more 
they use in confectionary and cooking." 
The area where pecan nuts can be grown most 
successfully is practically confined to the cotton 
belt of the South. When there are enough nuts 
to market we will have the world for a customer. 
More and more they are becoming regular 
articles of food. During the spring of 1915 one 
company placed a single order for 230,000 
pounds of the pecan meats. The price of ordinary 
seedling nuts is higher now than it was twenty- 
five years ago, because their food value has 
become better known. When the price of nuts 
becomes such that people can att'ord to eat them 
then they will do so, for our doctors and scientists 
are telling us that if we will eat more fruits 
and nuts and less meat.s we would be healthier. 
That prince of horticulturists, Mr. E. W. Kirk- 
patrick, of Texas, says: "The pecan will ere 
long become the most valuable and willing 
servant of nuinkind. These mute servants will 
be sentinels of i)ros))erity about the houses of the 
happy, contented ])eo])le. Prevailing necessity 
calls for basic changes in our food regime, a 
change from animal to vegetable, the jirimal 
factor of which will be nuts. Thus rapidly and 
surely are we returning to the original design of 
Deity — a design which will lead us to a more 
sublime destiny." 
Aristocrat Among Trees 
A TEXAS P.VPER thus breaks forth in the 
praise of the pecan: "In song and poetry 
the stately oak has been idealized as the 
monarch of the forest. In this country the clean 
and strong form of the pecan proclaims it the 
aristocrat among trees. It is a little slow of 
growth, but never sto])s until it lifts its proud 
head above all other trees. Its sj^niinetrical form, 
its graceful branches, its straight trunk, its 
graceful swaying, its foliage makes it a thing of 
beauty. As a shade tree or an ornamental tree 
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