PART I.

Introduction. Botany.

Chapter I. Commercial and Ornamental Importance of the Pecan.

Chapter II. Native and Cultivated Range.

Chapter III. Pecan Botany.

PART II.

Varieties.

Chapter IV. Varieties.

Chapter V. Pecan Judging.

PART III.

Cultural.

Chapter VI. Propagation of the Pecan.

Chapter VII. Top-working Pecans.

Chapter VIII. Soils and their Preparation.

Chapter IX. What Varieties to Plant.

Chapter X. Purchasing and Planting Pecans.

Chapter XI. Cultivation and Fertilization.

Chapter XII. Pruning.

PART IV.

Harvesting. Marketing.

Chapter XIII. Gathering, Storing and Marketing Pecans.

PART V.

Diseases. Insects.

Chapter XIV. Fungous and other Diseases of the Pecan.

Chapter XV. Insects Attacking the Pecan.

PART VI.

Uses. Literature.

Chapter XVI. Pecan Kernels.

Chapter XVII. Literature.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATES. Page

Frontispiece, 2

An avenue shaded by pecan trees, 13

Pecan flowers, 21

A pecan nursery, 71

Budding tools, 73

A two-year top-worked pecan tree, 85

An old pecan tree top-worked, 88

The pecan bud moth, 136

The case-worm, 139

A pecan catocala, 141


FIGURES.

Approximate pecan areas, 17

Money-maker, Post, San Saba, Bacon, 29

Curtis pecan, 32

Mammoth, Dalzell, Kennedy, 33

Frotscher pecan, 35

Georgia pecan, 36

Schaifer, Ideal, Ladyfinger, Atlanta, 41

Mantura pecan, 43

Pabst pecan, 46

Russell, Franklin, Kincaid, 49

Schley pecan, 51

Stuart pecan, 52

Success pecan, 53

Van Deman pecan, 55

Nussbaumer, 58

H. minima and two hybrids, 59

Schneck hybrid, 60

Grafting iron, Budding knife, 72

Scions, 76

Annular budding, 78

Veneer shield-budding, 79

Chip-budding, 80

Cleft grafting, Whip grafting, 81

One-year pecan in fruit, 82

Pecan tree grown on quicksand, 90

View of bud union, 99

View of whip graft, 100

Annular bud, 101

Rectangular planting system, 104

Hexagonal planting system, 105

Planting-board, 107

A nursery tree with good root system, 119

Taproot cut and uncut, 120

Spraying pecan trees, 131

Nut crackers of different types, 149

Woodson's power kernel extractor, 151

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 assisted in its preparation, my thanks are herein expressed.

H. Harold Hume.
Raleigh, N. C.,
Aug. 1, 1906.

PART I.

THE PECAN AND ITS CULTURE.

CHAPTER I.

Large quantities 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 analyses are as follows:

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 analysis, 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 quantities than is usually the case, but simply to emphasize its high food value.

According to the foregoing analysis, 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.

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

CHAPTER II.

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.

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.

CHAPTER III.

The family Juglandaceæ, embraces but two genera, Juglans and Hicoria, the former including the walnuts and butternuts, and the latter the pecan and other hickories. With the exception of the Shellbark hickory, Hicoria ovata Britton, and the Big shellbark, Hicoria laciniosa Sargent, the pecan is the only one of the genus worthy of cultivation.

Family. Juglandaceæ Lindl. Nat. Syst. Ed. 2, 180. 1836. Trees with alternate pinnate leaves and monœcious bracted flowers. Staminate flowers in long, drooping catkins, provided with three or more stamens and occasionally with an irregular-lobed perianth adnate to the bractlet and a rudimentary ovary. Anthers erect, with short filaments, two-celled; dehiscent longitudinally. Pistillate flowers bracted with a three to five, normally four-lobed calyx and sometimes with petals. Ovule solitary, erect, styles two, stigmatic along the inner surface. Fruit a bony nut, incompletely two to four-celled. Seed large, two to four-lobed, cotyledons corrugated, oily, without endosperm.

Genus. Hicoria Raf. Med. Rep. (II) 5:352. 1808. Trees, with close or scaly bark, odd-pinnate leaves and serrate leaflets. Staminate flowers in slender drooping catkins, borne in groups of three, occasionally on the new shoots, but usually from buds just back of the terminal buds on last year's shoots, calyx naked, adherent to the bract, unequally two-third lobed or cleft; stamens with short filaments, three to ten in number. Pistillate flowers, two to eight, produced on a terminal peduncle, calyx four-parted, petals none, styles two to four, short, papillose. Fruit oblong, or obovoid, the husk separating into four parts; nut smooth or angled, bony, incompletely two to four-celled. Seed oily, sweet, edible or bitter and astringent. Natives of eastern North America and Mexico.

Species. H. Pecan (Marsh.) Britton. Bull. Torr. Club, 15:282. 1888. Pecan, Illinois nut, a large tree, 75 to 170 feet in height and a diameter reaching 6 feet, with rough-broken bark. Young twigs and leaves pubescent, later nearly or quite glabrous; leaflets seven to fifteen, falcate, oblong—lanceolate, sharp-pointed, serrate, green and bright above, lighter below; staminate catkins five to six inches long, sessile or nearly so, sometimes borne near the base on the young shoots but usually from the uppermost lateral buds on last year's shoots; pistillate flowers terminal on shoots of the current season's growth, produced singly or in clusters of two to nine; fruit oblong cylindrical; husk four-valved; nut 3/4 to 2-1/2 inches in greatest diameter, roundish, or cylindrical and pointed, two-celled at the base, partition thin, bitter, seed deliciously sweet. Found native on the moist bottom lands along streams from Indiana south to Kentucky and from Iowa south to Texas, principally along the Mississippi and its tributaries, the Colorado river in Texas, and along some of its tributaries into Mexico.

Pollination.

Since two kinds of flowers are produced on the pecan, one bearing the pistils, the other stamens, the pollen must be transferred from the latter to the former in order that pollination may take place. In many plants the pollen is transferred from one plant or flower to another by means of insects; but in the pecan there are no bright colors, no nectar, no scent to attract insects to carry pollen, but, instead, the wind is the carrying agent and it needs no attractions. Pollen is produced in large quantities, necessarily so, since much of it is wasted.

Unfavorable weather conditions at time of blooming may, however, interfere seriously with pollination. Heavy winds or wind-storms, and rains of several days duration, may prevent the necessary and desired distribution of the pollen, as a result of which no fruit is formed.

Sometimes the staminate blooms are destroyed by frost while the pistillate ones escape. It makes little difference which is destroyed, however, as in either case the result is the same—no fruit sets.

The staminate flowers push out from the lateral buds at the same time the new shoot develops from the terminal one. The pistillate blossom does not appear until the terminal shoot has grown six or eight inches, and in the meantime it is protected by the unfolded leaves. The staminate bloom, on the contrary, is exposed from the first, having no leaves to protect it. In consequence it is much more likely to be cut off by frost. Dr. Trelease refers to several observations on proterandry (maturing of the pollen before the stigmas of the pistils) in the pecan. This, together with the unprotected condition of the staminate blooms, we believe, accounts in a large measure for the non-setting of fruit on the northern boundaries of the pecan area.

The artificial or hand pollination of the pecan is an easy matter and offers an inviting field for those interested in plant breeding. Emasculation, or the removal of the stamens from the flowers necessary in breeding so many plants, is not necessary in the pecan. All that is needed is to cover the pistillate blossoms with a sack until they are matured. At this time the inner or stigmatic surfaces of the pistils will be exposed and ready for the pollen. The pollen, collected from adjoining trees in bloom or brought from a distance, can then be placed upon the stigmas and the sack replaced. When the fruit is set, the paper sack should be replaced by one of mosquito netting. Some careful work has already been done along this line, and it is hoped that many more will take up the work. Much yet remains to be desired, and varieties may be better adapted to different sections. The ideal, large, full-meated, thin-shelled, prolific and precocious variety of pecan has not yet been brought forward. It may be accidentally discovered; it may be produced and can be produced by systematic, painstaking work in breeding. It is hoped that the number of workers in this inviting field may be increased. Some may be deterred by the fact that it will take the seedlings so long to come into bearing. But scions may be taken from the seedlings raised from cross-bred nuts, top-worked on large trees, and fruit could be obtained in many cases in a period not exceeding five or six years from the seed. Those which would not produce fruit in six years in this way might perhaps as well be discarded.

PART II.

CHAPTER IV.

For the origin and synonomy of many varieties credit must be given to the excellent work of Mr. William A. Taylor, of the United States Department of Agriculture, who has probably done more than any one else to straighten out the tangled nomenclature of the pecan.

Classification of Varieties.

Heretofore, no attempt has been made to group or classify the different varieties of pecans. Classification does not become necessary until the number of varieties has increased sufficiently. The following classification of the varieties with which the author is acquainted, is based entirely upon the shape of the nuts. No classification of those varieties of which descriptions are copied has been attempted, as the descriptions are frequently so meagre as to render it impossible: