Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-16


no other known fruit Of the soil brings in
anything like SO much net profit per acre.
The trees are not in full bearing until they
are ten years old, but from that time on yield
an average OF more than 100 pounds of nuts
each yearly. An acre of land will accommo-
date forty trees, and the nuts find q ready
market at Is cents q pound wholesale. Such
nuts as are desirable for seed fetch very much
higher prices. There is one planter in this
city who sells all the nuts his pecan orchard
can raise for 81 pound. There is great diff
ference IN the quality of pecan nuts, you see,
the finest kind having shell so thin as to be
readily crushed between the thumb and fore
niger and meat OF very superior flavor. The
qualty OF pecan nuts raised in plantations
has been made by selection very superior to
the Wild varieties already. One great advan-
tsge OF this sort of farming is that 1t involves
no labor or expense for picking the crop.
The oldest pecan plantation is in Alabama.
IL was planted fifty years ago aud now
produces three barrels of nuts to the
tree. Its owner says that it brings
him In an income of $1,000 per acre. Ger
tainlv the minimum income from pecan farm
Is S5OO per acre, the grove being in full bear
ing Furthermore, the trees bear up to quite
one hundred years old, making ninety years of
productiveness. SO it appears that a planta-
ton OF pecans is a fair-siZed fortune and big
income for any. one who has the patience to
wait the preliminary decade. The best way TO
raise the nuts is TO bud" or graft the trees
with cuttings from fine cultivated ones 1t is
the same way with the pecan as with any other
fruit; you plant the seed and you cannot posi-
bly, tell what will come up. but by graft you
are absolutely certain to produce the same
thing that the graft is taken from.
PLANTERS IN THE GULF STATES
have discovered that there is big money in the
raising OF pecans and they are beginning to 60
into it. Thus the production of this sort Of
nuts is likely soon to exhibit very large In
crease. Fortunately the market is practically
unlimited inasmueh as other countries do not
grow them. This subject Of pecan raising will
form the most important section OF a report
shortly to appear in which the Department of
Agriculture will present the results in con-
densed form of an exhaustive inquiry Just I'm
lshed regarding the nuts of this continent
Incidentally to this inquiry some interesting
facts were ascertained in relation to a hickory
nut very nearly as large as a mans hand which
formerly grew i'll the Wabash valley, Indiana
CnlucEiy all the trees were long ago cut down
for timber and OF them now remain
though adults in that region remember these
Brobdignaggian nuts as familiar to their child
hood.
The pecan nut is cousin to the hickory nut
and grows in husk very like that which en-
cases the latter. When the crop of pecans is
to be gathered down south in the fall of the
year, all the boys and men who are not too
busiy employed otherwise are hired to club
the trees and pick up the nuts from the ground
Wagons carry them to the nearest town. where
they are disposed of. The larger planters,
however, ship directly to the north.