jimnnn^^S 
PRICE, THREE CENTS 
Si.oo PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 7, 1894. 
VOL. LIII 
PECAN GROWING IN LOUISIANA. 
BOLTING A BIG NUT STORY. 
How the Laugh Was Turned on the Croakers. 
In my rambles around New Orleans, when a student 
at Tulane University, in that city, I took close notice 
of the various products offered for sale, and the prices 
charged for them. I soon saw that the most valuable 
of all the horticultural and agricultural products— 
the one that brought the most money for the given 
weight—was the large sized soft-shell Louisiana 
pecans. The best grade of these sold at the unvary¬ 
ing price of 81 a pound, and as years went on there 
was no decline in the price. I had spent much of my 
boyhood upon a cotton plantation, where pecans 
thrived, and I knew that a tree came into bearing at 
nine years old, and would bear a profitable crop at 15 
years. One day I did a little sensible reasoning on 
this subject. I was still a young man. If I bought a 
large number of these nuts and planted a big grove, 
10 years afterwards I would 
still be in middle life, and have 
How the Grove Was Planted. 
And now the laugh, which nine years ago was very 
loud and strong, has been turned, and, instead of a 
foolish thing, my friends see that it was a wise thing 
I did. There was one neighbor, a good farmer withal, 
but a man with the bad trait of thinking that all men 
who did differently from him were in the wrong. 
This man lost no opportunity of poking fun at me 
nine years ago when I was planting my grove. Nine 
years have passed since then, and that makes a great 
difference. I was passing by his house the other day 
and I saw that he had torn down his yard fence in 
order to cut down a fine oak tree that was shading a 
pecan tree his wife had planted years ago. I stopped 
to have a talk with him. “ I am one of the biggest 
fools that ever lived,” he said. “When my wife 
planted this one tree, I should have planted half my 
place in pecans.” 
I planted the nuts in the cotton rows 30 feet apart, 
and the rows 60 feet apart. I marked each nut with 
years I can count on many of my trees in the grove 
doing as much. From my experience with pecans, I 
have found out the following facts; Trees grown 
from fine nuts reproduce themselves with slight 
variations. The cutting of the tap root of a pecan 
tree does not prevent its bearing. It causes the tree 
to grow more slowly, and to produce a denser head, 
with more fruit-bearing twigs, which will bear twice 
as many nuts. This is in direct opposition to the 
statements of those men who have seed to sell, but it 
is a fact. And, lastly, trees planted out in the open 
field will not be bitten by stock (in inclosures they 
will be ruined). 
Prospects of Pecan Culture. 
I have now about a thousand trees in all. In an 
open, cultivated field, they make a beautiful oval 
giowth, and when not too close together, no tree can 
surpass them in symmetry. The price for fine pecans 
has not declined in the last nine years; if anything it 
has advanced, for it is impossible to get the finer 
grades for less than 81 a pound, 
^ while some men charge as 
a valuable source of profit. 
Every old man whom I had 
ever heard talk on this subject 
had expressed a regret that 
he had not planted a pecan 
grove in his youth. I deter¬ 
mined that this should not be 
my regret in old age. I re¬ 
solved to save enough of my 
yearly allowance to buy me a 
large amount of seed of these 
extra-size pecans. My mother 
owned a plantation in Louis¬ 
iana, and after some persua¬ 
sion she agreed to give me 
enough land to plant my pecan 
grove on. As this was rich 
alluvial land, there was noth¬ 
ing now in my way to prevent 
my beginning my work. I 
planted nry grove nine years 
ago this winter, and last fall 
it came into bearing. It was 
a happy day for me when I 
first saw the clusters of nuts 
hanging on the trees. My 
grove now numbers about 70 
acres, and this winter I shall 
plant 30 acres more. 
How Old Timers Laughed. 
high as 83 a pound for them. Of 
course, when large quantities 
are placed upon the market 
the price will fall, but even at 
10 cents a pound they will pay 
much better than anything 
else that can be grown on the 
land. For many years after 
my grove comes into bearing, 
there will be a large demand 
for the finest grade of Louis¬ 
iana soft-shell pecans for 
planting, and these will bring 
very high prices. When I be¬ 
gin selling them for eating 
purposes, I shall have to be 
satisfied with much lower 
prices. 
A few years ago I wrote an 
article on pecan culture in 
which my name and address 
were given, and which was 
copied by the agricultural 
press. I received hundreds of 
letters in regard to the matter 
from all over the country (one 
coming from far-off Australia,) 
and I might have sold 8500 
worth of pecans from this 
article alone Let me say here 
that I have neither trees nor 
When I first started to plant Evolution of a Louisiana Pecan Grove. Fig. 66. nuts to sell just now, nor am 
my grove nine years ago, I be- I agent for any one, so it 
came the laughing stock of the will be needless to write to 
whole community. I was doing something no one had three pieces of shingle. When the trees were one me. I shall not have the time to answer the letters, 
ever done before, and it was past comprehension to year old, I put a stout post by each tree, which was A pecan grove in bearing has several advantages 
our people how any one could wait 10 years to get removed in six years, as the trees were then large over an ordinary crop. The product will sell for a 
paid for his work. Fun was poked at me at every enough to take care of themselves. For the first five great deal more than any other crop on the given 
turn and corner, even by my best friends. I planted years, I planted the ground to cotton, then alternated land. The trees will not be injured by an overfiow 
the nuts in the open field among the cotton, and my it with corn and peas. My trees now average about from the Mississippi River, the great curse of our 
friends would say “ Why ! there is no possible hope 25 feet high, and in a few more years I shall have to land. They will not require any cultivation after the 
of your getting a pecan grove. The little negroes sow the land with clover, and use it for pasture. The land is sown to clover. 
will grabble up the nuts before they come up, and trees on our rich land should stand 60 by 60 feet, so I I wish to draw the attention of the reader to the 
even if they do germinate, the mules and plows and will have to remove some of mine as they are too thick great superiority of the Louisiana soft-shell pecan over 
careless negroes will destroy bhem all before they are in the row. But I shall wait and see which bear the the largest nuts grown in Texas. Any one who will 
a year old.” One old uncle who thought he was very finest nuts, and remove only the inferior ones. This buy a few of each kind and compare them, will find 
wise in such matters, said that if I did such foolish will give a little unevenness, but will cause me to save that the Louisiana nuts are larger, the shells are thin- 
things as this I would be sold out at sheriff’s sale be- all the finer nut-bearers, which could not be done if ner, the meat is richer, and the pecans are o£ a more 
fore the pecans came into bearing. None of these every other tree were removed. regular, even shape. The average Texan will be dis- 
things ever happened, and although, the last years I have several trees in the yard at Cottage Oaks, just posed to deny this fact, but it is a fact that can be 
have been very disastrous to cotton planters, our six years in advance of my big grove, and from these proved by comparison. I have had pecans sent me 
financial condition is better to-day than when I planted I can make a fair comparison of what my grove will from all portions of Texas (their brag nuts), and they 
the pecan grove, and would be better still had I done do in six years. In the fall of 1892, several of these did not compare with the best grade of Louisiana 
more of it. trees bore as much as a barrel apiece, so in five more soft-shell pecans. sam. h. jamks. 
