The Pecan and its Culture Part 1

The Pecan and its Culture.

by H. Harold Hume.

PREFACE.

In the horticultural development of the country, new fruits, new groups of fruits, new fruit industries are coming into prominence. Our native fruits in particular are now receiving, in many parts of the country, a larger share of the attention which they have always merited, and none has proven itself more worthy of careful study and painstaking care than the pecan.

Within the last ten or fifteen years it has rapidly emerged from a wild or semi-wild condition to the status of an orchard nut. The foundations of its culture were laid a considerable time ago, but only now is it coming to its own, its well merited standing among the fruits of the country.

In any horticultural industry many questions must be asked of the plant, the soil, the climate, in short, of the plant in its environment. They must be answered aright, if the industry is to succeed. The newer the plant in cultivation, the more numerous the questions are, the more difficult to answer.

In an endeavor to aid in solving some of the problems connected with the culture of the pecan this small volume has been prepared. Pecan culture has been the subject of careful study, observation and experimentation on the part of the author for a number of years and the results of these studies are presented in the following pages.

To the many who have so kindly and willingly a.s.sisted in its preparation, my thanks are herein expressed.

H. HAROLD HUME.

Raleigh, N. C., Aug. 1, 1906.

PART I.

Introduction. Botany.

THE PECAN AND ITS CULTURE.

CHAPTER I.

COMMERCIAL AND ORNAMENTAL IMPORTANCE OF THE PECAN.

In all-around excellence, the pecan is equalled by none of the native American nut-bearing trees and certainly it is surpa.s.sed by no exotic species. It stands in the list of nut trees with but few equals and no superiors. With this fact known and admitted by all, it seems reasonable to suppose that the pecan will be grown and cultivated much more extensively than it now is. Its intrinsic worth deserves a large share of attention, more than it has received. At present it is gaining a position of so much importance as an orchard tree, that, ere long, it will become an extremely important item in the horticultural wealth of the Southern and Southwestern States.

Large quant.i.ties of pecans are sold in the American markets. These are the product of uncultivated or forest trees. Many orchards of considerable size, planted with meritorious budded and grafted varieties, are now in bearing, but the product of these plantings is entirely used by what may be termed a private trade, either by seedsmen, or by private individuals for dessert purposes. Some day, varieties of pecans will become known in the markets just as varieties of grapes, apples or pears are known. People ask for Niagara or Concord grapes, Northern Spy or Greening apples, Bartlet or Seckel pears--ask for what they want, and know what they are getting. The day is far distant when Frotscher, Schley, San Saba, Curtis, Georgia or other varieties of pecans will be known by name by the purchasing public, asked for in the markets and recognized when procured. But that time must and will come, and until then there is no danger of the industry being overdone, and not even then, because our population is constantly growing; because the pecan nut is being put to a variety of new uses, and as yet the export trade is comparatively undeveloped. (See table, page 15.) It would seem then that the pecan might reasonably be expected to replace to a certain extent the foreign nuts in our own markets.

According to the investigations of Woods and Merrill,[A] the pecan has a higher food value than either the walnut, filbert, cocoanut, almond or peanut. The results of their a.n.a.lyses are as follows:

-------------------+---------+---------------------------------------+-------- EDIBLE PORTION. +------+--------+------+---------+------+-------- Edible Carbo- Fuel Portion. Water. Protein. Fat. hydrates. Ash. Value per Pound.[A]

-------------------+---------+------+--------+------+---------+------+-------- per cent. pr ct. pr ct. pr ct. pr ct. pr ct. Calories Pecans, kernels 100.0 2.9 10.3 70.8 14.3 1.7 3445 Walnuts, kernels 100.0 2.8 16.7 61.4 14.8 1.3 3305 Filberts, kernels 100.0 3.7 15.6 65.3 13.0 2.4 3290 Cocoanuts, shred'd 3.5 6.3 57.3 31.6 1.3 3125 Almonds, kernels 100.0 4.8 21.0 54.9 17.3 2.0 3030 Sh.e.l.led Peanuts 100.0 1.6 30.5 49.2 16.2 2.5 2955 -------------------+---------+------+--------+------+---------+------+--------

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE II. An Avenue Shaded by Pecan Trees.]

It is a fact worthy of note that the average man requires 3,500 calories of energy each day, an amount which must be secured from food consumed.

One pound of pecan kernels, according to the above a.n.a.lysis, would supply 3,445 calories, or only 55 calories less than the amount required per day. We are not, be it understood, pointing out this fact because we believe that the pecan alone would be a satisfactory food, though it is wholesome, nourishing and palatable and should be used in larger quant.i.ties than is usually the case, but simply to emphasize its high food value.

According to the foregoing a.n.a.lysis, the pecan is richer in fat than any of the other nuts. Seventy per cent. of the kernels is fat. The pecan may at some time be in requisition as a source of oil--an oil which would doubtless be useful for salad purposes--but it is never likely to be converted into oil until the present prices of the nuts are greatly reduced.

If we turn from the dietary value of the nut to the ornamental value of the tree, we cannot but be forcibly impressed with its value as a shade and ornamental tree. For these purposes it may be planted far outside the area in which fruit may be reasonably expected. If given good soil and sufficient food supply, it grows quite rapidly, making a stately, vigorous, long-lived tree. In its native forests it is a giant tree, sometimes reaching a height of upwards of two hundred feet with a trunk of six feet. Isolated specimens, grown in the open, come to maturity with wide-spreading branches and the whole tree has an exceedingly graceful appearance. Wherever it will succeed, no other shade tree is so worthy of attention as the pecan, and in the fruiting area, beauty and healthful shade may be combined with utility.

As an orchard tree it is well worth planting. The ground in which the trees are planted may be cultivated in other crops for a number of years, thus reducing to a minimum the cost of maintaining the planting, and when the trees have come into bearing, the same area in trees will yield more in net returns than the same area in cotton or corn at the usual market prices.

On the whole, considered from whatever standpoint we may choose, the pecan is a valuable tree, whether cultivated for its nuts or planted for shade or ornamental effect.

Exports of Nuts from United States for Years 1900-1904 inclusive.

+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ VALUE. VALUE. VALUE. VALUE. VALUE. +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ $156,490 $218,743 $304,241 $299,558 $330,366 +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

Importations of Nuts into the United States for the Years 1899 to 1904 inclusive, according to the most authoritative statistics.[B]

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 1899 1900 1901 +----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ VARIETY Quant'y Value. Quant'y Value. Quant'y Value. OF NUTS. lbs. lbs. lbs. +----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ Almonds 9,957,427 $1,222,587 6,317,633 $949,083 5,140,232 $946,138 Cocoanuts. 625,789 702,947 804,233 Walnuts (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) Other 879,166 1,326,804 1,518,184 +----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ Total Nuts $2,727,542 $2,978,834 $3,268,255 +----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ 1902 1903 1904 +----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ VARIETY Quant'y Value. Quant'y Value. Quant'y Value. OF NUTS. lbs. lbs. lbs. +----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ Almonds 9,868,982 $1,240,886 8,142,164 $1,337,717 9,838,852 $1,246,474 Cocoanuts. 832,383 908,242 971,852 Walnuts (a) (a) 12,362,567 1,106,033 23,670,761 1,729,378 Other 1,971,072 1,514,406 1,523,462 +----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ Total Nuts $4,044,341 $4,866,398 $5,471,166 +----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

FOOTNOTES:

[A] Calculated from a.n.a.lysis.

[B] Yearbook U.S. Dept. of Agr., 1903, page 686, and 1904, page 728.

CHAPTER II.

NATIVE AND CULTIVATED RANGE.

The pecan is found as a forest tree in the moist bottom lands along the Mississippi river and its tributaries, from Indiana southward to Mississippi, and from Iowa to Texas and Mexico.

This region (see Fig. 1) in which the pecan is, or has been found, native, reaches its northern limit at Davenport, Iowa. It skirts the Wabash as far north as Terre Haute, Indiana, and along the Ohio river nearly to Cincinnati, Ohio. From thence its range extends south to Chattanooga, Tenn., and on to Vicksburg, Miss. From Vicksburg it skirts the Gulf of Mexico at a distance of seventy-five to one hundred miles to Laredo, Texas; thence along the Salado river into Mexico. The western boundary embraces the headwaters of the Colorado river and returns more or less directly to Davenport, Iowa. On the outskirts of this area, it extends farthest in all directions along the streams and rivers, while on the drier intervening ground the line does not extend so far from the center of the region. Particularly is this true in Southwestern Texas, where the pecan is confined almost solely to river bottoms.

CULTURAL AREA.

The area in which the pecan is cultivated as an orchard tree is not confined to the limits of its native range. Plantings have been made outside its native home in New Mexico, California and Oregon in the West, and in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Southern Alabama and the Gulf regions of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In many other States experimental plantings have been made.

Leaving these out of consideration, however, it will be seen that in about twenty States the pecan is either found as a native tree in the forests or is cultivated in orchard form. The area corresponds in some measure with that in which cotton is grown, though it extends farther north and west than the cotton region.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1. Approximate Pecan areas. Native areas within solid line. Cultural area within dotted line.]

The attempts which have been made from time to time to cultivate the pecan in the more northerly States have not proved successful. The tree has, in many cases, grown well, but fruit has not been produced. The pistils and stamens of the pecan are not found in the same flower but in different flowers borne some distance apart on new and one-year-old wood, respectively. Consequently, it frequently happens that the flowers are not matured at the same time, as a result of which pollination cannot take place. Moreover, late spring frosts often destroy one or both sets of flowers, and the result, as far as fruit is concerned, is the same in either case. As a result of these experiences, the pecan cannot be recommended as a nut-bearing tree north of its natural range in the Mississippi Valley, neither will it succeed at the high elevations in the Alleghany mountains. It reaches its most northerly cultural extension in the Mississippi valley and in the coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard. But it grows well and makes a good shade tree farther north, and at elevations far above its native range. Even then, however, the nuts from which these seedling shade trees are grown should be brought from the northern sections of its natural distribution. They are much more likely to withstand the rigorous cold of winter.

Frequently the question is asked as to whether the pecan can be grown in a certain given locality. Such a question can be answered only in the most general way. The presence of the larger species of hickories in the vicinity may be used in some parts of the country as an indication of the success which might attend the planting of pecan trees, but such a guide should not be followed too implicitly, and even if the pecan tree should grow well, fruit might not be secured.

The presence of pecan trees, single specimens perhaps, or two or three, in yards or about buildings here and there throughout a region, may be taken as a guide in the matter of planting, and no better can be had.

Nothing will take the place of a practical demonstration in the way of a vigorous fruiting tree.