THIRTY-THIRD BlENNIAI, SESSION 
1 23 
the Mississippi Valley trees and nuts have been carried to the east and the 
pecan has become naturalized throughout! Georgia, Alabama and the 
Carolinas. 
It may be noted that of a very fair seedling pecan it takes about one 
hundred and fifty nuts to weigh a pound, the larger part of which is shell. 
In a pound of Stuarts there are only about forty nuts and the largest pro- 
portion of this weight is, fine edible meat. 
The Food Value of Pecans. 
$ 
It is now pretty generally known that all nuts are of very high food 
value. Indeed, bulk for bulk, they rank with the most nutritive foods that 
we possess. Of the nuts that yield the greatest amount of nourishment 
the pecan stands first. The finest quality pecans contain as much as 80% 
of pure oil. In fact there is no other vegetable substance in all the world’s 
food supply that is so rich in fats as the pecan. In cracking pecans if small 
portions of the meats are allowed to fall on the carpet they will leave 
grease stains there as if portions of butter had been dropped. On account 
of this very high oil content pecans soon become rancid in warm weather. 
The nuts of the fall crop should be used during the cool weather of winter 
for it is impossible to keep them through summer in good condition unless 
they are sealed in vacuum jars or held in cold storage. Pecan meats, a 
very toothsome and nutritious product, are now prepared for sale in South- 
ern “crackeries” and are handled in immense quantities by the larger con- 
fectioneries for the winter trade. They must, however, find quick sale 
for if they remain long in warm stores their very richness soon causes them 
to become rancid and consequently inedible. Any one buying old pecan 
meats will remember them as he would strong butter. When they are bad 
they are very bad, but when fresh they are fit for a king. 
The Pecan Tree vs. Other Nut Trees. 
I*n comparison with other nut trees the pecan is remarkable for its early 
and heavy bearing. Of course there are pecan trees that are tardy and 
shy bearers, but on the average the pecan will bear oftener and heavier 
than any other kinds of nut trees I have ever seen. At New Bern, N. C., a 
six-year-old Stuart pecan tree bore eighteen pounds of fine nuts. In its 
seventh year the same tree bore eight pounds and in its eighth year forty 
pounds of nuts. There is at Raleigh, N. C., an old pecan tree that bears 
about four hundred pounds of nuts per year. The owner has more than 
once realized one hundred dollars for a single crop from this tree. Two 
years ago in Louisiana I helped to harvest the crop of a thirty-year-old pecan 
tree. The nuts began dropping the last week in October and every morning 
the ground was pretty well covered with them. When the most of the 
shucks were open a boy was sent up to shake the branches and use a light 
fish pole on the highest ones. The nuts came raining down in a perfect 
shower until the ground was so covered that one could not put a foot down 
any where under the tree without stepping on nuts. When we finished 
gathering the crop we had two flour barrels full. 
