392 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
Dates and figs stuffed with pecans are also in large demand. 
Pecan meat is entering into use in many other ways. 
Mr. William A. Taylor, Pomologist in charge of Field 
Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, in 1904 Year 
Book, says: “Of our native nut-bearing trees none promise 
to become of such pomological importance as the pecan. 
Within the region to which it is well adapted for cultivation, 
which may be roughly stated as the Mississippi Valley below 
St. Louis, the South Atlantic and Gulf states, including 
Texas, no other nut tree, either foreign or introduced, can 
be considered as fairly in competition with it. Though long 
neglected as a possible profitable orchard tree, it has during 
the past fifteen years, assumed considerable importance, 
and extensive orchards have been planted in most of the 
southern states. Previous to about 1900 most such orchards 
were planted with seedling trees, or nuts of particular varie¬ 
ties, which were placed at desired orchard distances and 
allowed to germinate and grow where the future trees were 
to stand, thus avoiding the transplanting piocess. As the 
earlier seedling orchards have come into bearing it has 
become increasingly apparent that the seedlings from trees 
of these exceptionally fine varieties which the orchardist 
desires to perpetuate vary too greatly from their parent 
types to be of much commercial value. Such seedlings 
rarely bear nuts closely similar to the parent in size, form, 
color, thinness of shell, plumpness of kernel, or dessert qual¬ 
ity, and still more rarely do they reproduce the desired pro¬ 
ductiveness, ripening time, or other important characteris¬ 
tics that determine the commercial value of the tree. The 
necessity of relying upon budded and grafted pecan trees 
for commercial orchards is now very generally recognized bv 
intelligent planters, so that at the present time few seedlings 
are being planted.” 
ORIGIN OF NUT GROWERS’ ASSOCIATION 
Back in the early “nineties”—perhaps it was in the fall of 
1891—four men met in an office in Albany, Ga., and organ¬ 
ized what has since developed into the National Nut Grow¬ 
ers’ Association. The four men were Mr. G. M. Bacon, of 
DeWitt; Major R. J. Bacon, of Baconton (now dead); Mr. 
James M. Tift, of Albany, and Dr. J. F. W T ilson, of Poulan. 
The organization was effected by electing Mr. G. M. Bacon, 
president; Major R. J. Bacon, vice-president; Dr. J. F. 
Wilson, secretary, and Mr. James M. Tift, treasurer. 
It will be seen that each one present was elected to an, 
office. Only four officers were elected because, it may be 
presumed, there was nobody else to elect. 
Such was the beginning of the organization of the nut 
growers of Southwest Georgia, and this meeting of four men 
was, in fact,„the planted seed, so to speak, from which the 
National Nut Growers’ Association of toda,v is the splendid 
outgrowth. 
The National Nut Growers’ Association was organized 
at Macon, Ga., in 1902, and Mr. G. M. Bacon was elected 
president. Mr. Bacon held the office of president until 
1905, when he resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Kirk¬ 
patrick, of Texas, who held the office through 1906. F. A. 
Burnette, of Louisiana, was president in 1906-7; Dr. J. B. 
Curtir, of Florida, in 1907-8, and Mr. J. B. Wight, of Cairo, 
Qa., is the present incumbent. 
Since the first meeting of the National Nut Groweis’ 
Association at Macon, Ga., in 1902, the annual meetings 
have been held, respectively, in New Orleans, St. Louis, 
Mo.; Dallas, Texas; Scranton, Miss.; Jamestown, Va., and 
Chattanooga, Tenn. 
The conceded fact that Southwest Georgia now leads all 
other sections of the country in the development of the 
pecan industry, is mainly responsible for the recent meeting 
of the nut growers in Albany. 
ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE PECAN INDUSTRY IN 
SOUTHWEST GEORGIA 
Thirty-seven years ago Dr. Battle sent home pecan nuts 
from Texas to the children of Maj. R. J. Bacon, at Bacon- 
ton. A few of these nuts were planted in the Bacon garden 
alongside the pailings. While managing Major Bacon’s 
large farming interests several years later, Mr. G. M. Bacon 
dug up a,nd transplanted four of these seedlings. One died: 
two were left standing where they had originally come up 
from the nuts. One of these was afterwards cut down or 
destroyed in some way. The other is still standing, a large, 
magnificent tree and heavy bearer. Nuts from this famous 
tree are known as Major Baton’s “Battle.” Two of the 
transplanted trees are large a,nd prolific bearers. The 
other, crowded by large oaks and other growths, has never 
done much. 
Results from these trees, though comparatively small 
at the time, satisfied Mr. G. M. Bacon that the possibilities 
of the pecan in this region offered an inviting field of en¬ 
deavor and determined him to plant out a commercial grove 
as soon as he acquired land of his own a,nd was in a position 
to put his ideas into execution. In 1882 he purchased what 
was then known as the Troup Butler plantation, three miles 
north of Baconton. And this is now DeW T itt, the home of 
the extensive nurseries and bearing pecan orchard of the 
G. M. Bacon Pecan Company, and the South Georgia Pecan 
Company, the latter company being managed by Patter¬ 
son & Taylor, Chicago and Professor Craig of Ithaca, N. Y. 
Mr. Bacon began planting pecans on his place in 1886, 
and began selling nuts in 1893. In 1898 he started the nur¬ 
sery business in a small way, and in 1900 and 1901 he planted 
pecans on a large scale. The Bacon Pecan Company, of 
which he is still the head, was organized in 1903. By this 
time he had demonstrated to others the possibilities of the 
pecan business as a purely commercial proposition, and the 
capitalization of a company for carrying on the business was 
easy. 
The later companies have planted a larger acreage for 
their own personal groves and have also sold and are devel* 
oping for northern investors many five-acre tracts. It may 
be said to their credit that they have set a new sta.ndard for 
the cultivation and care of pecan orchards. They do not 
believe in letting a pecan orchard grow like “Topsy.” It is 
their custom to cultivate a ten-foot strip along tree rows 
continuously during the growing season and keeping this 
ten-foot strip clear of all grass and weeds and keeping the 
soil in the very best condition to conserve the moisture and 
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