178 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
arises as to how the marketing of this 
crop can be handled. It is a phase of 
the problem that will require careful 
thought. It may be it will solve itself. 
As the crop increases in value, the pro¬ 
duct may be more carefully looked after 
by the owners. 
This wild nut is today, the most impor¬ 
tant item in our pecan trade. Most peo¬ 
ple to whom the pecan is known, have 
never seen any other than the small wild 
nut, and could not even tell what its nat¬ 
ural color is. They have never seen it in 
its natural color. It has been stained, 
polished and fixed up to improve (?) its 
looks before it gets into their hands. It 
is hard to make them believe that there 
are any larger and better nuts than those 
to which they have been accustomed. 
PICKING AND HANDLING CROP. 
*• 
Some people, who do not know, be¬ 
lieve it entails no cost or trouble to gath¬ 
er a pecan crop. True the gathering of 
■ 
a crop from young trees is not a particu¬ 
larly difficult piece of work, but the se¬ 
curing of a crop from trees, four or five 
feet in diameter and one hundred and 
fifty feet high is another matter. In the 
case of large old trees, one must wait for 
the crop to come down or invest in a set 
of Wright Aeroplanes. Planted on the 
soils of our State, the trees are not likely 
to reach such large size and for many 
years after they come into bearing, the 
crop may be hand picked. Hand-picked! 
Some one holds up his hands in amaze¬ 
ment. But the man who' wants to get 
all that there is in his crop will have to 
hand pick it. One of the faults of some 
varieties is that their crop does not ripen 
uniformly. But the time to begin gather¬ 
ing is when the greater number of burrs 
are open and the points of the nuts are 
peeping out. Then strip the trees—tak¬ 
ing open and closed burrs together. Some 
of the closed ones will open, those which 
do not are probably faulty. Based on an 
estimate made on trees, twenty-five to 
thirty years old, the picking and shuck¬ 
ing of the crop, ready for drying, is from 
one and a half to two cents per pound. 
packages. 
Pecans shipped in sacks have a myste¬ 
rious way of being lost or reduced in 
quantity. Just why this is, is hard to 
say, but if you try to ship nuts in a sack, 
you will find out. I have even known 
shipments that started out as a sack of 
pecans to arrive at destination a sack 
of cotton seed hulls. They had been 
transformed on the way. As interesting 
as the transmutation of metals! 
To insure safety to the product wooden 
or heavy corrugated packages should be 
used. For large quantities, the barrel is 
best. It is a little unwieldy, weighing ioo 
to 125 pounds or thereabouts. Half bar¬ 
rels are good for smaller quantities while 
for still smaller shipments wooden or pa¬ 
per boxes are best. Care and neatness in 
putting the product up in attractive shape 
are well repaid, just as in the handling of 
any other fruit. 
TIME TO MARKET. 
We have heard that after we have har¬ 
vested our crop, we can sit down and wait 
until conditions are just right before mar¬ 
keting it. In my humble opinion, while 
