The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-27
FARM, FIELD, GARDEN
How to Cultivate the Fine
Pecan Nut.
PROFIT FROM BEE CULTURE.
Protection Of the Peach Trees Against
Frosts and Yellows-Yorkshirs
Swine Successful Here.

The nut crop is one that has been great
~ ignored and neglected in this country,
but IN some respects it is one that can be
made not only probable adjunct to the
other farm products, but an excellent, WELL
paying speciality. Nearly all of the i'm
ported nuts from the Mediterranean and
other tropical climates can be grown some
where In the United States, and the home
trade supplied with the native products so
that the foreign articles could not be sent
mere with any profit to the growers. OF
all the nuts that have almost universal
growth In this country, and that pay well
for the labor bestowed upon them, the Pc
can probably ranks among the first.
Properly speaking this nut is an intermedi-
ate between the hickory and walnut, but it
has a much reader sale than either one of
the two latter. 1t is q native of Mexico
and the Southern states, but it can be cul-
tlvated with success in nearly all of the
Western. Eastern and Pacific coast states.
Of late years so much attention has been
directed toward this nut that it threatens
to ontriyal the orange in the extent of its
cultivation. No crop is more easily grown
or harvested, and one grove thoroughly
started brings in steady income to the
owner There are off years when the nuts
are not so plentiful, but old trees viii gen.
orally yield from SIS to $40 worth Of
nuts annually. Fifteen cents per pound
and $40 per bushel for pecan nuts
are not uncommon prices. The trees
make fine, large, symmetrical growths,
and prove an ornament to a place, and
they thrive for thirty to fifty years. No
farmer can afford to ignore the fact that
two or three dozen of these trees scattered
over his place will in the course of time
yield him an annual income without much
extra labor. Trees must be planted on the
farm, and pecan trees answer the threefold
purpose of making fine ornaments, good
shade trees and profitable crops. The
pecan trees grow the best along low, wet
bottom lands, and many old worth
less places can be used in this way.
Land that is naturally good for oak,
hickory and chestnut is generally good for
pecan tree. The trees are rapid feeders,
and low swampy land generally supplies
them with the right kind of food. The
trees should be propagated by seed or by
nursery plants. Only the very best pecan
nuts should be used for seed, and these
should be planted under the most favor
able conditions. Plant the nuts in loos-
ened soil about four inches deep either in
the fall or spring. The young seed
lings appear from April to June,
and they need little more attention
than wedding them out and later trans
planting them so as not to make them
crowded. If the plants are secured direct
from the nurseryman the soil should be
fertilized little after being thoroughly
plowed and narrowed. The nuts should
be planted in drills about three feet apart
and from twelve to eighteen inches
apart in the drills. Nursery-grown trees
do not come into bearing as soon
as those started in the orchard.
When the trees are in the grove in
which they are to bear continually they
should be p laced far enough apart to give
them ample room to expand their
branches. On some very strong land sixty
to seventy feet apart is not too much, but
the average distance is from thirty to fifty
feet. The trees grow very large, and they
can be made to thrive along the hedges of
fields if little attention is given to them.
A long row of pecan trees will serve as a
good wind break to field of grain, and
also yield large crops of nuts. They begin
to bear in the seventh year, and from that
time onward the bearing steadily in
creases. S. W. CHAMBERS.