THE PECAN 
THE PECAN 
THE PECAN 
Mr. .1. B. \Vi«:lit'H l-'umouH Frolseher Tre«' Which Has Aver- 
iiK^d $100 a Year for Five Years. Read Its K«eor<l 
Some Fundamentals and 
Conclusions 
IX 1908 the writer read a pajjer before the 
convention of the National Nut Growers' 
Association at Chattanooga. While much has 
been learned since then about nut growing, yet 
if I were reading a like paper today, I see no 
reason why any statement or conclusion given 
then should be materially changed. The follow- 
ing extract is taken from that paper: "The nut- 
producing qualities of the pecan is no longer a 
debatable question. The nature-])lanted trees 
that have for hundreds of years yielded their 
crops of nuts and withstood the vicissitudes of 
wind and weather, of man and beast, attest this. 
Trees a hundred years old planted by man, and 
annually increasing in size and productiveness, 
go to show thai it responds readily to cultiva- 
tion. We can produce the nuts. What more 
could be tlenianded? 
"Again jieople want these nuts. They are will- 
ing to part with their silver and gold to get them. 
i'dfjf sert-ii 
C€»Uou Is Sefu <>riiwiiiK Ainimjc These Trees \>'liieh Are KlKtlt Years Old and Have an Kstiniated Crop of From 
Four to Twenty rounds of Nuts Per Tree 
Substantial purses have been filled through the 
sale of nuts from one tree, and this not simply 
in a few isolated cases. Here and there through 
the pecan belt are individual trees that have 
enriched their owners, fifty, seventy-five, or one 
hundred dollars per year. If one tree .so behaves, 
why not a dozen? And if a dozen, why not as 
many hundred? Who will gainsay the soundness 
of this logic? 
"There is money to be made in pecan growing 
when judiciously conducted in a business-like 
manner. When we consider the long life and 
healthfulness of the tree, and also the abundant 
time in which the nuts can be gathered and 
marketed, I do not know a more attractive field 
in all the realm of horticulture than this. 
"But the company that is organized for purely 
speculative purposes and represents to prospec- 
tive investors annual profits of from 500 to 1,000 
per cent on the money invested, is doing a ques- 
tionable business. IJnderstand me; I do not 
wish to discourage the formation of companies 
for growing pecans; but I do say that the pecan 
Paye eight 
proposition, when properly handled, is in itself 
attractive enough without any extra touches of 
rainbow coloring to set off the picture. 
"Without the desire to po.se as a prophet, it is 
safe to predict that in ten to twenty years from 
now there will be thousands who will be glad of 
the fact that the question as to where tomorrow's 
food and shelter are coming from, will not worry 
them; and that fear of poverty — that terror of 
old age, — has lost its sting. These are they 
who years before planted pecan trees, and cared 
for them as they would a garden." 
A Record Tree 
THE Frotscher tree [jictured on page seven is 
probably the best known ]>ecan tree in 
existence, due to the fact that the carefully 
kept records of its growth and crops of ruits have 
been very widely published. It stands within 
200 feet of the residence of Mr. J. B. Wight, in 
Cairo, (leorgia, on ground formerly used as a 
garden; but ()r|)ingtons now desport themselves 
in its cooling shade. 
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