NUT TREE SPECIALIST 
11 
Yields and Profit 
I am sometimes asked what a pecan, English or black walnut tree will pro¬ 
duce at a givefn age. No one can tell what any certain tree or trees will bear 
at a given age, because conditions are too varied, but we can estimate the crop 
in a general way. Good budded or grafted trees of good bearing varieties of 
these nuts, when properly planted and cared for till the trees arc well establish¬ 
ed, will begin bearing about as early as the apple and should produce profitable 
crops as soon as the trees arc large enough to carry good crops of nuts. On 
rich land, this should be about as early as the apple. 
It is conservatively estimated that if one plant, say, 1000 good budded or 
grafted trees of the pecan, English or black walnut, (or some of each) and give 
the trees proper care till established, that they will return a net profit of at 
least $3000.00 a year at 10 to 12 years of age and the yield will increase rapidly 
with the growth of the trees and should reach at least $10,000 a year when the 
trees are in good bearing. If the nuts are cracked and the kernels marketed, 
the income should be considerably larger than this. It is felt that the above 
estimate is very conservative, and I believe'that this is so, as 1 know several 
trees the crop of which sells for $100.00 or more in a single year. Estimating 
an orchard on the basis of these trees, (and there is no good reason why we 
can’t duplicate them or even beat them) profits would be very large, as the cost 
of growing is practically nothing, and the nuts, falling to the ground when ripe, 
are easily and cheaply gathered and are not perishable, but may be sold as they 
come from the trees or they may be cracked and the kernels sold at one's 
leisure, during the fall and winter months. Every year sees a large increase in 
the quantity of nuts cracked, and eventually they will be sold that way almost 
entirely. The average person will not cat very many nuts if they have to crack 
them, but if they are cracked and put on the market in a readily usable form, 
the demand will be practically unlimited. Remarkably efficient power crackers 
have been invented and arc now in use cracking pecans, and it is believed that 
just as good ones will be devised for cracking good black walnuts and other 
nuts as soon as we have them in sufficient quantity to justify the manufacture 
of such machines. Eventually, nut crackerics will be in operation all over the 
country and those having a few hundred pounds of nuts or those who prefer 
to sell their product as they come from the trees, can dispose of their product 
readily and without the trouble of bagging and shipping them. 
Some people, in investigating the possibilities in growing nuts, compare 
production and sales per acre with those of the best apple or peach orchards. 
Unless one knows what the fruit grower is up against in his fight with insect 
pests and diseases, the comparison is not a fair one. It is not what a crop sells 
for that determines the profit or the satisfaction of growing. With half the 
gross sales per acre, a nut orchard might show more net profit, and the crop is 
certainly more satisfactory to grow and handle. Also, the nut trees require 
comparatively little care or attention and arc permanent, outliving several gen¬ 
erations of fruit trees. When fruit is low in price, the fruit grower must go 
ahead with the necessary spraying, pruning, cultivation and thinning of the 
fruit, even though returns do not justify the expense, because if left to shift for 
themselves, fruit orchards are soon gone and the investment is lost. On the 
other hand, nut orchards, while the trees respond to manuring or added soil 
fertility, in increased growth and bearing, the trees will go along in good shape 
without, and if the land on which they are growing is naturally rich or has been 
previously made so by manuring or the growing of leguminous crops, the trees 
will continue to bear good crops of nuts without any further attention to soil 
fertility, at least for a number of years. 
Mr. E. A. Richl, the noted Illinois nut and fruit grower, has a number of 
Thomas black walnut trees in bearing and wrote me in Dec. 1915 that he had 
sold all of his Thomas kernels at 80c per lb. wholesale, and as he got 10 lbs. of 
kernels to the bushel of nuts, he considered their growing very profitable. 
Later, Mr. Riehl wrote me that if he was a younger man he would plant at least 
1000 grafted Thomas black walnut trees. 
