FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
REPORT ON NUT CULTURE. 
BY C. F. BARBER. 
Mr. President^ Ladies and Gentlemen: 
Having been appointed by the Presi¬ 
dent as one of the committee on this im¬ 
portant committee and being satisfied that 
the question will be thoroughly covered 
by the other distinguished committeemen 
I shall make my report very short and 
shall deal with the growing of Pecans 
and leave the question of the growing of 
other nuts to the other committeemen. 
I believe that the Pecan is the only 
nut that can be raised for a profit in the 
state of Florida and I do not think it ad¬ 
visable to attempt to raise a seedling Pe¬ 
can grove. My observation has been, 
that the bearing qualities are very uncer¬ 
tain. I will not attempt to explain what 
varieties are best to plant in Florida; 
that part of our report I will leave to the 
other committeemen. 
Budding and grafting has proven to 
be very expensive to nurserymen there¬ 
fore, to plant out a grove with budded or 
grafted Pecans is much more expensive 
than it would be to plant the same grove 
with seedlings but the assurance of having 
trees bearing earlier with chances of a 
crops of nuts each year will more than 
pay the difference in putting out the 
grove. My experience has been far more 
satisfactory with buds than with graft¬ 
ing. Where a nurseryman has irriga¬ 
tion, I think the grafting has proven to 
be as satisfactory and possibly more so 
than the budding. Most all land in the 
state of Florida has proven to be very 
satisfactory in raising Pecan trees. The 
low stiff soil with a clay subsoil anywhere 
from two to five foot seems to be the best 
land to grow Pecan trees on. Pecan trees 
will stand most any amount of water on 
low land without any injury to the trees. 
They will not do much on land that is 
underlaid with quick sand or land that 
is better known as sand soaked land. The 
Pecans are usually regarded as a difficult 
subject to deal with in transplanting; af¬ 
ter they have been transplanted for twelve 
months and get started to growing then 
a rapid growth can be put on them each 
year with the proper attention paid to 
them. I find that barn-yard compost is 
the best fertilizer to use around the Pe¬ 
can trees. I raised one year old buds 
last season on two year old roots that 
grew five to six foot and some larger. 
Pecan trees should be transplanted in 
December or January to get the most sat¬ 
isfactory results in growing off. I don’t 
think it advisable to transplant late in the 
spring after the sap has . started to flow in 
the stock. My opinion is that it will 
cause the trees to dwindle and finally die. 
Plant out budded or grafted trees of the 
best varieties and the results will be sat¬ 
isfactory in years to come. 
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