Vol. LXV. No. 2946. 
NEW YORK, JULY 14, 1906. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
FROM COTTON TO PECANS 
The Evolution of a Mississippi Nut Farm. 
If there is one mistake greater than another made by 
the southern farmers it is that of planting too much 
land to cotton. The center of the production of the 
largest crops of cotton in the world is not far north of 
the place where Red River joins the Mississippi, and 
this is also the region where the wild pecan, both in 
tree and nut, reaches its highest development. Having 
decided to plant a large orchard of pecan trees of the 
finest varieties, I organized the American Nut & Fruit 
Co., and after several years of thorough consideration 
of the whole subject, and examination of the various 
regions where this nut flourished, I concluded to locate 
it where nature and man had both succeeded best with 
it. One of the old plantations on which cotton of the 
highest quality had been grown for generations was 
bought. It lies near the west bank of the Mississippi 
and fronts on Lake Concordia, which is one of the an¬ 
cient but now unused channels of the great river; and 
at a medium high stage of water connects with it and 
is navigable for boats 
of the largest size. A 
railroad line crosses 
the land near the center 
and affords us a sta¬ 
tion. The tract of land 
that was thus selected 
as the place for our big- 
pecan orchard consists 
of nearly 2,250 acres, 
over 900 of which are 
cleared and nearly all 
now in a fine state of 
cultivation, cotton be¬ 
ing the principle crop 
grown. The wooded 
portion has thousands 
of giant pecan trees 
growing on it, and 
even in the fields that 
have been cleared the 
longest there are pecan 
trees struggling for ex¬ 
istence, and in many 
cases flourishing. They 
are from stumps that 
were cut off and from 
nuts dropped by crows 
and bluejays that were 
flying about when pe¬ 
cans were in season. 
Every means that the 
cotton growers have used for their destruction, such as 
ax, hoe and fire, have failed, and thrifty sprouts have 
kept coming up annually, and will do so until the roots 
are dug out very deep. 
The soil of this region is the richest of alluvium. It 
has been made through countless ages by the overflows 
of the mighty river that carried in its waters the leach- 
ings and washings from millions of acres of the great 
basin that it drains. There is not a rock, not even a 
pebble, to bother the farmer; and all the fault of the 
land is its almost level surface, which makes good drain¬ 
age in time of heavy rains rather difficult. But a good 
system of ditches has greatly obviated this, and little 
water stands long in our fields even after the heaviest 
rains. 
On the first day of February of this year we planted 
the first pecan tree in the orchard proper. It was set 
among the cotton stalks with my own hands, with the 
former owner of the premises and others to assist me. 
1 he tree was of the variety called Stuart, which is gen¬ 
erally considered the best of the well-tested kinds. The 
illustration, Fig. 221, shows us in the act of doing the 
planting of this first tree, and in an orchard that we hope 
will be, and shall endeavor to make, one of the best as 
well as one of the largest in existence. Within six 
weeks from the time the first tree was planted we were 
practically done setting the entire 10,000 trees that I 
had planned to plant this Spring. They cover nearly 
(500 acres, and are all in a solid block. They arc set 50 
feet apart, both ways, except where an avenue 100 feet 
wide and running from our station on the railroad to 
our plantation house intersects the property about the 
center. Providence favored us, or we could not have 
done the work as quickly as we did, which was really 
in about 20 days of actual work, for rains and cool 
spells interfered somewhat. All the hands were negroes, 
and had to be trained to plant trees, for none of them 
had ever done anything of the kind. Their life work 
had been to destroy rather than to plant trees. But 
they worked faithfully, and from early until late. We 
were usually in the field before sunrise, and with less 
than half an hour to eat breakfast, which was brought 
to the field, and an hour for dinner, we worked until 
sundown. The usual wages here for common labor is 75 
cents per day, but I paid a dollar per day for this job, 
because I thought it was worth it, and to get the best 
service possible. There was no grumbling nor lagging, 
and I want to say in praise of these people, there was 
not an oath nor an ugly word heard by me on the en¬ 
tire job, and I was present all of the time. The aver¬ 
age number employed was about 12 men and two wom¬ 
en, besides the boy or girl who carried drinking water. 
The method of setting used was with a spaced plant¬ 
ing wire. I made one wire 1,000 feet long, using No. 
16 galvanized and annealed steel. This was rather too 
small for its length and the tight stretching we gave it, 
and I will use No. 12 next year. It lengthened slightly 
from the tension, and gave us a little trouble by having 
to remark the planting points. I also made two spaced 
wires 500 feet long. All three were marked into spaces 
by soldering about four or five coils of a small wire 
about the large ones at points accurately measured 50 
feet apart, and then by securely tying a small strip of 
red flannel at each, that they might be easily seen. Sev¬ 
eral tall sight poles were provided, to be used in lining 
up the wires. A small pocket telescope was used, in case 
it was needed, at times when the light was not good 
and the sight poles were difficult to see. We also had 
a small surveyor’s compass for laying the base and 
perpendicular lines at the starting point, and to prove 
correctness of the lines at any time we desired. 
I he planting was done by stretching the long wire 
about four inches in front of this base line, and the two 
short ones at either end and at right angles to it. Sight 
poles were set at either end of the long wire, and three 
intermediate ones, but they were exactly on the base 
line, which is where the trees were to be planted. The 
little space given by stretching the wire a few inches 
in front of the base line was sufficient and intended to 
allow digging the holes and planting the trees without 
disturbing the wire. Some of the workmen had spades 
and others had 10-inch Iwan post-hole augers. With 
the spades the holes were started immediately opposite 
the marked points, and the augers were used to finish 
them to the required depth, which was fully 20 inches; 
for pecan trees have very long tap roots, and almost no 
side roots, and the soil being very deep and rich, the deep 
holes, 10 inches wide, were ample. The hands usually 
worked in sets of three; two with spades and tamping 
stick and one with an auger. By the time the first hole 
was ready, the trees 
having been distributed 
along the line from a 
cart in which a lot 
were constantly kept in 
wet moss, the two men 
with spades were ready 
to plant. They worked 
together, one holding 
the tree and tamping 
the earth about it, 
while the other filled it 
in with his spade. 
Within about 10 min¬ 
utes, after the hands 
had become trained, a 
row was completed and 
the wire ready to be 
moved, to the next 
place, and in some 
cases it was done in 
eight minutes. This 
included the entire 
work of moving the 
wire, setting the sight 
poles, stretching and 
lining the wire like a 
chalk line, digging the 
holes and planting the 
trees. Thus over an 
acre was planted in 
that time, for there are 
20 trees along the line 1,000 feet long, and only 17 re¬ 
quired to the acre. The men soon learned to move the 
wire in a jiffy, all taking it up at once and stepping 
forward 50 feet. Those who could be trusted the most 
were put at the ends and where the intermediate sight 
poles were set. When a certain block was planted all 
hands picked up the wires, tools, etc., and moved to the 
next position. I rode a horse and kept close watch 
of everything that was done during the entire time, 
which was quite necessary, for there were new hands to 
instruct about getting and keeping the line straight, 
digging the holes, planting the trees and all such 
details; and even our oldest and most trusty men were 
frequently making mistakes, forgetting instructions, 
etc. But we got along very well, and faster than I 
really expected. 
As soon as we got a block of trees planted I started 
wagons with loads of stakes six feet long and about 
like small fence posts, with men to drive one beside 
each tree, for its protection. Cotton, corn and cow 
peas are the crops that are being planted among the 
trees this year, and will be for several years to come, 
and my purpose is to keep the darkey and the mule 
SETTING PECANS IN THE CONCORDIA PLANTATION, MISSISSIPPI. Fig. 221. 
