Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-13

land clearer is that the nuts are small, :.
! thick-sheiieti and not of first class
! quality. All of this is against the tree,
! OF course, but not enough against il to
| justify its destruction with the rest OF
| the forest growth. Clearing up the sur
roundings and giving it fair chance
msy lead TO marked Improvement in
the character of its fruit; besides, should
! this prove otherwise, SD abundant yield
of nuts, even OF inferior grade, would be
worth something to the owner. There
| could be 10 pecans so inferior that they
| would not go of on the market at some
figure, and that figure might be reckoued
IN rs so much clear gain. since, rs al
ready stated the tree would not TT all
interfere with the regular crops to be
grown upon the same land.
Ii we were putting out a new pecan
grove We would be careful TO plant only
the best thiu-snelled varieties, but
never, IN clearing up new ground, W ouid
we destroy even an inferior variety al
ready established. "a bird in the hand
is worth two i'll the bush. - five wanted
to plant that particular ground to fne
peeans We d put in the fine pecans but
leave the "old timers alone in TIA cir
glory all the same, promising for our
self or for our heirs that the old tim ers
should be cut out of the way after the
fancy stock had established itself aud
provei up its good character, but not be-
fore.
The time is not far in the future that
shall see the pecan reckOned as one of
our scarcest and most highly valued pro-
ducts. The American people were slow
TO appreciate the true worth of Il thing so
long rs it is q spontaneous product aud
free to all: but the days Of wild and tree
pecans are now about over. II the wild
pecan trees had been respected i'll earlier
times, Is they should have been, those
days need never have been over, but here
we have in the way that inCorrtgibie
eff. The writer OF this was never u
Texas boy, and now never can be, but
he went through his boyhood in a state
where the pecan grew as wild forest
tree. Those boyhood times of his were
long ago, but be still well remembers
how the pecan tree Jared along about
then. We went to the river bottoms
pecan bunting every fall. We went as a
little crowd, and some of us were armed
with axes the use of which we well I'M
derstoOd. When we found pecan tree,
no matter how large, that appeared TO
have upon it so much rs &, peck of pc
GEMS, II WIS uoOlHSu tree. III ndu
pro badly borne that many pecans each
season through u hundred years in the
past. and if left alone would possibly
bear that many or mere for hundred
wears yet to come, but we never gave q
thought to that matter. Four of Va went
at 1t, axe n hand, right and left, while |
the girls stood at safe place. out of the
lean OF the tree, aud disputed over which |
of the four choppers got out the biggest |
chips. Soon there was 'sniggling' at |
the heart OF the old pecan tree, then |
swapping, then sway to one side, |
then II ''swash and 4 crash. - The o Id |
tree had produced its last peck of pecnua, |
and all hands were soon friskiug about |
among its PROSTATE and still quivering |
branches merrily harvesting its farewell |
crop.
In thoss early times we were all free |
Americens-eyerythiu was looked upon |
as free to everybody. Under the work
iugs of that peculiar freedom the old |
pecan groves melted away little 10y little |
until now the wild pecan is almost ex-
clusively the property of Texas. And |
even here il is rapidly passing in Its
checks, Judging from the lights before |
us. How very wrong. How very |
strange, why, we certainly ough. to
IiOiu ~ eve. Lining
has given us III the pecan, aud 10 add to
that gift all we possibly could through |
artificial means.
We often read with wonder the mar
Vicious tales told of the olive in the old
world-how aged the trees become, how
profitable they are. and nil that sort of
thing. Do the people over there read
any such tales about our pecan? If not,
why not? The pecan is tree of fully as
long lie as the olive. and counting the
value of its product in dollars and cents
1t is decidedly more profitable. We'd go
our full length ut growing the olive here
if we could. but We can't; we could all
grow the more profitable pecan il We
would. but We won't. What people
are we Americans.