402 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
GROWING PECANS 
An Extemporaneous Address by JUDGE CHARLES L. EDWARDS, Dallas, Texas, 
Before the Farmers’ Congress 
Hardiness of Prime Importance 
Among desirable traits in nut trees, that of hardiness is of prime 
importance, especially in Northern portions of the pecan area. 
In the earl}’- years of my experience it was found that the large, thin- 
shelled varieties originating on the Gulf Coast might be rendered more 
hardy by working them on our natives. For instance, the Russell 
pecan, a variety of strong merit, has been recommended as suited only 
to low latitudes. A neighbor having a tree of it gave me some bud 
from it and these were put on native stocks in th^ spring of 1907. His 
tree, grown by a nurseryman in Southern Mississippi, and presumably 
grafted upon a seedling from a nut produced in that revion, was killed 
to the ground by a sharp freeze in November following. The shoots 
grown from the buds of that t’^ee, put on natives during the previous 
spring, passed uninjured through the same freeze. Since then my 
records show similar results with the Frostscher and Success, both of 
them excellent varieties of low-country pecans. It may now be set 
down as a demonstrated fact that pecans from the lower latitudes, when 
budded on native North Texas stocks, become more hardy, as does the 
orange when worked upon seedlings of the citrus trifoliata. For up- 
country nut-growers this may be considered a distinct improvement. 
Efforts Toward Earlier Bearing 
A leading objection urged against the pecan industry is that the trees 
are too tardy in beginning to bear. Our native trees furnish a remedy 
for this, too, for now and then we find one that begins to bear when five 
or six years old. One of these trees grows near me, and it not only 
began to bear when very young, but for some twenty years has been a 
regular and abundant producer. It is vigorous in growth, symmetrical 
in shape and has proven to be a mother tree of exceptional excellence. 
Seed-nuts from it were planted in 1906 and the seedlings were budded 
as they became of proper size to several different varieties of standard, 
soft-shelled pecans. Several of the young trees so produced gave first 
fruits early. The Van Deman, usually considered a slow-bearing sort, 
is fruiting this season at seven years from the seed; the Stuart and Teche 
came in at six years from the seed, the Georgia at five, the Halbert and 
Texas Prolific at four years. Other seednuts bought in the market were 
planted the same season and budded with the same varieties. All have 
had the same care, but results have been greatly in favor of those budded 
upon seedlings grown from nuts from the neighbor tree, with a known 
record for early, regular and prolific bearing. I raise no trees to sell, but 
if you were going to transplant, which lot would you select from? It is a 
little strange to me that while people are selecting their seed corn and 
trying, by the same methods, to improve their cotton, their melons, 
tomatoes and all that, we seldom hear of one who is trying to improve 
fruit and nut trees by seed and bud selection. A number of instances 
could be given from my own experience to show that peach and pecan 
trees respond as readily to the rules of correct breeding as any other 
species of plants. The peach and pecan are mentioned, because my 
experiments in tree-breeding have been mainly with them. Others, 
equally interesting, are under way, and report will be made in due season. 
All this work is done according to the maxim of the progressive live stock 
man: “Good blood at both ends of the line.” Translated into horticul¬ 
tural terms, it means, “every seedling from a good seed and the seed from 
a good tree; every bud and graft from the best bearing trees and every 
plant a thoroughbred.” I have been harping upon this string for years, 
and expect to continue the music, for in it we must recognize the very 
foundations of Progressive Horticulture. 
Showing the Goods 
To submit a talk like this without evidence in support of it would 
not only be a strain upon your credulity, but an injustice to myself. 
From time to time, in printed articles and otherwise, I have been telling 
you about putting buds from early bearing trees upon seedlings grown 
from nuts produced by early bearing trees. Over and over you have 
heard the story of two-year seedlings bearing nuts two years after 
budding; of three-year seedlings bearing the next year after budding 
and of four-year seedlings budded in early spring and producing nuts the 
same year. Not all of them do it, but some of them do it. Those that 
produce nuts the same year the bud is put on, and those that produce 
the next year after the bud is put on are all saved for future breeding. 
But it has become so common for little trees to bear the second year 
after budding that I have dug out two specimens and brought them 
with me. Here is a little fellow scarcely more than three feet above 
ground showing a two-year graft wfith a cluster of four or five nuts. 
And here is another, not over four feet, with two-year bud, well branched 
with growing nuts on nearly every twig, aggregating about twenty nuts 
in all. Take them, look at them; many of you are veteran horticul¬ 
turists and know something of the age of young pecan trees as well as the 
age of bud shoots. What do you think of them ? Here again is a little 
box of Stuarts from a two-year bud that produced a round dozen of nuts 
last season. That tree was left at home and will stay there. Here 
again are other little boxes of Mobile, Frotscher and Delmas from trees 
that began to bear at three years from transplanting and have been 
doing business ever since. Say for yourselves if they are not as fine 
pecans as you ever saw from the coast country or any other country. 
Here, again, is a box of Halberts from a baby tree with a two-year bud- 
shoot that produced fifty-five nuts last season, weighing one nut over 
three-quarters of a pound. They are not up to fuU size, as you will see, 
although the little tree was freely watered and did its best. It is doing 
some business again this year and will be kept for a mother tree. Does 
not all this indicate that our native trees ma}^ be made useful, not only 
in rendering the finer varieties more hardy, but in making them more 
prolific and more precocious as well? And are not these distinct and 
desirable improvements? In observing the common run of wilding trees 
budded with the finer varieties I have found that about one in a hundred 
'of Halbert bears the same year the bud is put on; Of the Stuart about 
one in a thousand bears the second year, and I have known of only two 
instances in many thousands where the Stuart fruited the next year after 
budding. How does this compare with trees bred from selected seed 
nuts and selected buds, as before related? Does it not spell something 
in favor of correct methods in the breeding of trees? A great deal more 
could be said on these lines, but under my time allowance the subject 
will be left as it stands and a few words given to my friends among the 
nurser3rmen present on the better methods in the budding and grafting 
of pecan trees. 
New Kinks in Budding and Grafting 
For years and years I have been describing by illustrated articles 
what seemed to me better and simpler ways of doing this work. I have 
also been insistent upon as much as posible of this part of propagation 
being done in the spring months. The spring-set bud has the whole 
growing season before it and makes a salable tree by fall. The summer 
bud makes only a start into growth before fall, most of them remaining 
dormant until the following spring, and not a few drying out and dying 
out. And you put on grafts only in late winter or very early spring. A 
graft may be put on just as easily in summer as in winter. But why 
graft? In the great majority of cases buds answer as well and are far 
more easily worked. The simple truth is you lack faith in springtime 
budding. Let me venture the suggestion that the graft is seldom neces¬ 
sary except when one has some valuable scions that are too small to use 
for budding. To strengthen my argument in favor of the spring-set 
bud and the summertime graft, as well as to call your attention to some 
new kinks in both processes, I have brought along the goods. Exper¬ 
ience has taught me that written articles with plain illustrations are less 
instructive than the living talk and a show of the real things one is talk¬ 
ing about. 
