San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-01-18
Chr 9utlg eight
FRIDAY, JANUARY Is, 1895
PECAN CULTIVATION
Texas the Native House of This
Nut-Its Value aud Uses.


Mr.. +. A. Swinden Of Brown
wood, Texas, has one OF the largest
pecan orchards in this state. He
thus describes his experience in a
letter to the editor OF the Scientific
American:
In an article published in your
paper, September 20, 1886, on the
"Pecan Tree" my attention was
drawn to its cultivation and to the
profits to be derived from same, so
after careful investigation l en-
barked in the enterprise, in the
spring OF 1888. My first step was
to procure land on the pecan bay
GU, in Texas, a mile from the city
of Brentwood, where | found them
in their native state. have now
on orchard of 400 acres, from one to
six years old. My experience, no
doubt, will be help to many who
are contemplating embarking in
the enterprise; also from the
amount Of correspondence l re-
ceived from capitalists and far
mers all throughout the North
and South, l do believe that it
will not be long before its cultiva-
tion will be found to rival that Of
the English walnut, and that this
section, which is it's native home,
will be as famous for pecans as the
Los Nietos valley in California for
English walnuts.
AS an article OF commerce, it is
valuable for it's timber as well as
its nuts; ak and hoe handles, gun
stocks, furniture and various other
useful articles are made from the
wood. The nut, besides being used
as a dessert, is made into cakes
and candies, and the oil from it is
very valuable, bringing the high
est price in the market, as it is
used by clockmakers, gunsmiths,
etc. The tree is OF slow growth
and long lived; the cut shows one
on my place over 100 years old in
its wild states, and there is no
doubt that there are trees many
centuries old along this stream.
The tree grows in the height of
eighty or more feet and it's home
is in the rich alluvial valleys, but
will not succeed where the soil is
not rich or deep; it has very long
tap root and goes down twenty to
twenty-five feet to water. There
are two distinct varieties, known
as soft and hard shell, the best
among the soft shell variety being
known as the Swinden and Stuart.
The wild varieties are generally
hard shelIed and hardly worth
planting. | have nearly 1000
trees on my 400 acres; they are
planted forty feet each way, and
as there is no enterprise that is
without its drawbacks, | must say
l had them to begin with, the first
thing being the wood louise or ant,
which attacked the yellow pine
stake placed by every nut; they
then went from the stake to the
nut and thus killed the young tree,
but this was obviated by cypress
boxes eighteen inches high tarred
at the bottom; these boxes also
served the purpose Of protecting
the young tree from the depreda-
tiOns Of the rabbits and other rO-
dents, which did me considerable
damage. Squirrels will unearth
the nuts when planted, and rabbits
will gnaw the bark and cut off the
tender sprouts. These drawbacks
at first disheartened me, but, hav-
ing the determination Of success.
/ held on and now feel amply re-
paid. | have shown what the dis
cOuragements are one has to meet
with, and will now look on the
bright side, which the future Of
this undertaking presents. The
tree will come into bearing in from
eight to ten years q had a bios
som on one OF my 6-year-old trees
this year,, but for profitable crop
we may estimate it at nine years.
A tree OF that age will produce one
bushel or fOrty.twO pounds OF nuts,
so that on the 1000 trees | will
get 1000 bushels, and as the large
ones (soft shell Variety will readi-
ly bring So per bushel, it will yield
a return of $4,000. Now, the cost
of gathering, etc, will be very
small, for the land can be put in
orchard grass, which when
cut will pay for the
expense Of gathering, and as
my place is as level as a table |
can put patent sweep construct
ed on the same principle as our
city streets sweeps, so that after
the hay has been gathered and the
frost makes the nuts drop they
can then be gathered and carried
to the asserting room, where they
can be cleaned and polished, thus
reducing by this process the cost