Combinations Adapted to Pecan Production 
W. W. Carroll. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen'. 
Mr. Charles M. Barnwell, musing 
thoughtfully on the bank of the river 
Flint, gazing into the opaque density of 
its flowing tide, would pause, if interro¬ 
gated, to observe that the best combina¬ 
tion adapted to pecan production is brains, 
experience and a fat bank account. Some 
have brains. They admit it. A few have 
experience, but rarely boast about it. I 
have heard of several persons possessing 
fat bank accounts, but have found it dif¬ 
ficult to induce them to combine the same 
with my brains and experience. 
The three component parts above nam¬ 
ed, combined in one and the same indi¬ 
vidual or company, would go far toward 
spelling success; but many of us who are 
growing and planting pecan trees will 
have to hire the brains, acquire the experi¬ 
ence and accumulate by some means 
(which I am not at liberty to disclose) 
the necessary bank account. 
Therefore it becomes necessary to dis¬ 
cuss under the title of this paper combi¬ 
nations that will produce revenue to help 
the bank account, that will help build the 
soil, that will help to reduce the great 
burden of expense incidental to caring 
properly for a large acreage of pecan 
trees. 
It is a grand and beautiful and uplift¬ 
ing thing to sit in the shade of one nine 
or ten year old pecan tree and reflect that 
it has a crop on it worth fifteen to twenty- 
five dollars. It is then highly entertain¬ 
ing to calculate what one hundred acres—- 
five hundred acres—a thousand acres of 
land, with twenty such trees to the acre, 
will produce at twenty years of age. I al¬ 
ways stop figuring on this when I get up 
into the millions. I am not very clever 
in mathematics. 
I felt, however, that I was justified in 
figuring that one hundred or one thousand 
acres of pecan trees, treated like the thir¬ 
ty or more trees in my test grove, would 
yield as big returns as my trees are yield¬ 
ing if the problem could be solved of pro¬ 
viding proper equipment and organiza¬ 
tion and means for the care of the trees. 
This problem must be solved by making 
the land between the trees produce profita¬ 
ble crops and increase in fertility, by mak¬ 
ing lands not planted in trees produce rev¬ 
enue to assist in the work. Hence the 
answer, which is the shibboleth of the 
modern farmer—cliversification. 
It is impossible to outline any fixed 
system of diversification. One must be 
governed by the extent and character of 
the land to be used for the grove. A 
body of land, all clear, free from stumps, 
with no shade or running water, permits 
