Texas City Times (Texas City, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, August 9, 1912 Page: 3 of 8
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Pe
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$82
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of nuts that were marketable at a
trees a crop
A
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45083535
,,
.63*
/
55
1
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B.GL
/
he applied to the agricultural
authorities of his state for
Value.
4
i 39
. .KEITH
Carbohy-
drates.
17.3
13.2
00.0
3.4
7.0
27.9
14.8
12.0
11.4
13.3
24.4
18.4
11.7
74.8
1
ble,
and
and
Fat.
54.9
57.4
18.5
61.2
66.8
50.6
64.4
65.3
67.4
71.2
38.6
.1
56.3
1.1
trees:
Year—1
1897 . -
1898 . .
1899 . .
1900 . ..
1901 . .
1902 . ..
1903 .
1904 . .
1905 . -
1906 . .
1907 . .
1908 . .
/
Protein.
21.0
21.9
18.9
27.9
17.0
5.7
16.7
15.6
15.4
11.0
25.8
2.2
27.6
10.8
a remedy. The expert
destroyed by mice
83
Water.
. 4.8
. 4.0
. 61.9
. 4.5
. 5.3
. 14.1
, 2.8
. 3.7
. 3.7
. 3.0
. 9.2
. 78.3
. 2.5
. .12.0
8,
fair price. Several experiments
more or less success. Finally
to keep at a
were made with
a plan was sug-
i t
•I
$
428
a
Article—
Almonds.........
Beechnuts.......
Beef Steak .......
Butternuts . -----
Brazil Nuts......
ocoanuts.......
English Walnuts .
Hilberts..........
Hickory Nuts ....
Pecans...........
Peanuts (raw) ...
Potatoes (Irish) ...
Walnuts..........
Wheat Flour .....
K
1
Yield.
7 nuts
9 pounds
12 pounds
18 pounds
31 pounds
20 pounds
47 pounds
78 pounds
53 pounds ‘
13 expounds
143 pounds
lb $
$ 67.50
90.00
135.00
232.00
150.00
352.50
585.00
397.50
975.00
1.072.00
yM<5 Per Acre.
210 nuts.
270 pounds
360 pounds
510 pounds
930 pounds
600 pounds
1,410 pounds
2,840 pounds
1.590 pounds
3,900 pounds
4,290 pounds
#93
"ea
distance. After his orchard was
my head a
an old-fashioned
trees shall bear, let the
2°*
* wga
want no monument of stone
or mar-
pecan tree
walnut—
pecans and the walnuts be given, out among the
plain people of Texas, so that they may plant
them and make, of Texas a land of trees.
Ex-Governor James Stephen Hogg of Texas ex-
pressed his wishes in this beautiful sentiment
a few years before his death. Let it be hoped
that his wishes are being sacredly carried out,
and that even now, the pecans and the walnuts
are being distributed among the plain people of
his great state, and that it may become a state
of trees and that these trees shall annually bear
something to aid in the maintenance of life.
The pecan easily takes its place in the front
ranks of all nut-bearing trees, both as to palata-
bility and nutriment value as well as a profitable
investment for the owner. Nut consumption has
shown a most remarkable increase during the past
fewsyears as a general proposition, and none more
rapidly than the pecan. Its digestibility and
the ease with which it is assimilated are the rea-
sons largely responsible for the fact. The pecan
is peculiarly rich in both protein and fat, placing
it fairly in the front rank as a valuable food prod-
uct.
With the advent of the grafted tree and the
elimination of that great uncertainty of the seed-
ing tree it is only a natural consequence that
pecan orcharding in the South took on new life.
Many who had given up in disgust again took
tip the work and became renewed enthusiasts.
True, a large portion of the pioneers had de-
stroyed their seeding trees and were compelled
to begin at the ground and build up again, but
those who had retained their old orchards at
once set about to find a plan to insure for these
4,
ml
much foundation for the gentleman’s deductions.
The customer waits eight or ten years for his
trees to bear before he has evidence that he has
been swindled. It is then too late for recourse, his
nurseryman having gone out of business years
before.
Pecan orcharding has at last settled down to
a plain business basis. The experience of the past
twenty years, together with the great progress
made in grafting and budding, has eliminated
the element of chance that has characterized the
business in the past. The man who plants a
tree now has as much assurance that it will bear
true to the wood from which the graft was cut
as if it* were a peach or an apple. Then, too, he
knows that several years of the long and tedious
wait for bearing to begin has been done away .
with. It is, therefore, safe to predict that the
next ten years will show remarkable develop-
ments in pecan orcharding.
Tle demand for high grade nuts has increased
at a phenomenal rate during the past few years,
and it is very likely that this demand will show
a corresponding increase during the next. Nut
consumption will grow' faster than nut produc-
tion, judging from recent experience, and the
man who has fifty to seventy to the pound nuts
will have no trouble whatever in finding buyers
in advance at highly remunerative prices. Lands
adapted to nut growing can be had at from. $10
to $30 per acre in many of the states within the
proper zone. The land between the trees will
easily furnish a livelihood during the time the
orchard is coming into profitable bearing and be-
fore the trees demand all of the space allotted.
“Back to the farm” has taken a strong and
lasting hold in the cities and towns, and the
mechanic or artisan who desires to provide for
the future could do no better than to secure a
piece of the right kind of land and plant it to
nuts, using a small portion of his wages for the
purpose of development. Experienced men can
be found in almost every community who can
be employed to give to the trees the care and at-
tention necessary for the first few years, or until
they come into profitable bearing. During this
period it would not be absolutely necessary to
giveup the steady wage needed to maintain the
family.
4
This table of comparative food values, coming
as it does from authoritative sources, establishes
the worth of the pecan as a valuable element in
maintaining life and health. Its great store of
contained and digestible fat makes of it a splen-
did and economical substitute for meats of all
kinds. There is as much protein, fat and carbo-
hydrates in a pound of pecans as in two and one-
half pound of the best beef steak. The ease
with which these valuable elements are digested
and assimilated furnish the foundation for argu-
ment by those who would eschew the consump-
tion of meats altogether. Without expressing an
opinion one way or the other as to the correct-
ness of the contention of those who would ex-
ist without the use of meats, it is a fact that the
consumption of nuts in the U nited States is in-
creasing much faster than the production. The
importation of nuts and nut products is double
the figures at present that they were even five
years ago.
The embryo poultryman sits down with a lib-
eral supply of scratch paper and neatly pointed
pencils and amasses a competency in three or four
years. The would-be pecan orchardist does not
get results quite so quickly, but if figures do not
lie he will roll up a pile at the end of fifteen or
twenty years that would make the average mining
prospectus a veritable pigmy in the battle for
financial supremacy. As an example of this the
following record of a single Mississippi tree is
used as the basis for an orchard of .one acre, thirty
2y
923
but plant at
at my feet
when these
pounds of nuts each annually. True, these nuts
are small and do not command more than 10 or
12 cents per pound, but even at this figure, the
trees are valuable. What would they be worth
if they produced a paper-shell that ran from fifty
to sixty to the pound? The grafted trees are
producing just such nuts and (there is every rea-
son to believe that they will be as hardy as the
old seedlings. Two of the first buds set by the
slave before the war are still living and pros-
pering. While it would be somewhat of a novel-
ty to hand a daughter upon the eve of her wed-
ding a deed to ten acres of pecans instead of a
bunch -of Uncle Sam’s securities, it would no
doubt be just as acceptable.
The inquisitive individual with a pretty well
developed doubt in his mind will naturally arise
to inquire if there is not some danger of overdoing
the business and producing more nuts/than con-
sumption will take care of. From information
gleaned by the United States authorities, and ■
therefore beyond question, it would seem that
the supply is not increasing nearly so fast as
the demand. In 1859 less than $2,000,000 worth
of nuts were imported into the United States.
This importation has gradually increased from
year to year, despite the efforts of our people to
grow enough for home consumption, assuming
the startling aggregate of $5,000,000 in 1904, and
twice that sum at present. More than $12,000,000
worth' of nut by-products are imported annually,
bringing the aggregate to a sum that would in-
dicate little danger of overproduction in the near
future.
Taking into consideration these figures, com-
ing from a perfectly reliable source, it would ap-
pear that we are becoming nut producers. The
production of nuts is developing at a phenomenal
rate, but not fast enough to care for the increase
in nut consumption. The area for pecan produc-
tion is necessarily limited to the warmer por-
tions of the United States. The nut consuming
area embraces the whole country. The colder
sections, demanding a consumption of fat in
large quantities, produce no nuts at all. The pe-
can is especially rich in digestible fat and is a
most valuable adjunct to the larder of all well-
regulated homes in cold countries.
To supply a merited increase in the demand,
the importation of inferior nuts to those pro-
duced here is growing appreciably larger. While
poor nuts find ready sale at a reasonable price,
the really good ones are in the greatest demand.
Big paper-shells that will run forty to the pound
are sought after and bring from $1 to $1.50 per
pound. The first-class hotel have difficulty in
securing enough to keep them on the menu. One
Mississippi orchardist has a contract for all that
run sixty to the pound or better at 89 cents, and
he is not able to furnish one-tenth of what this
one hotel would consume. Buyers eagerly con-
tract for the larger nuts months in advance of
the crop and pay fancy prices.
Let it be distinctly understood that not every
man who has tried pecan orcharding has been
successful and is gathering nuts every year that
net $500 or $1,000 per acre. It is a business that
gested, tried out, found to be feasible, adopted
and put into fairly general use.
The plan by which old seeding trees could
be made to produce good nuts is not at all elab-
orate or hard for the novice to understand. The
larger branches of the old trees are cut off at a
determined point for the heading and young
shoots allowed to spring up from these stubs.
When the shoots have attained the proper size—
that is, are practically the same in circumfer-
ence as the wood for which the buds or grafts
are to be cut—they are ready for top-grafting.
At the proper time buds are cut from bearing
wood, such as it is desired that the tree produce,
and the grafting is done. To make this plan
entirely successful, it is only necessary to insure
to the young wood plenty of root energy, but not
too much. Too much is as dangerous as too lit-
tle, because of the fact that with too much the
young member runs up tall and slim before be-
-eeming well fixed te the tree,-and is easily blown
or split off.
A considerable number of old orchards grown
from seeding stock have been successfully top-
grafted and made to bear merchantable nuts of
a good quality. By this means, otherwise un-
profitable trees have been-made profitable. The
years of waiting and expense incurred has not
been lost by any means.
The pecan is peculiarly valuable as a food
product, being especially rich in protein, fat
land carbohydrates—more particularly fat. A
comparison of the relative value of various food
products is given in the following table of analy-
sis in Farmers’ Bulletin No. 122, by the United
States Departnvent of Agriculture:
4,
E}
11 41 mIH
{12813/3
Seeee
222544422,SS
5,.*
gseg9
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requires right conditions, attention and the ex-
ercise of common sense. It is highly profitable
if handled properly; one of the very best to be
found, but must be handled energetically and in-
telligently. The failures that strew the high-
way of nut culture are probably as numerous as
those of any other line of endeavor. Enthusi-
asts have planted orchards with visions of fu-
ture profits constantly before them that eventu-
ally saw these dreams fade into thin air and had
failure meted out as their portion. Others have
been signally successful, and, of course, there is a
reason for it all.
The man who planted large nuts twenty-five
years ago on soil adapted to their use and gave his
trees intelligent attention, has been fairly suc-
cessful, while, on the other hand, the man with
otherwise the same opportunities, but with land
not adapted to the growth of the tree, has, of
course, failed. There are many orchards in Mis-
sissippi today that to the uninitiated appear as
healthy and prosperous that bring to the owners
little or no net income. The trees produce tim-
ber liberally, but do not turn out nuts. Condi-
tions were not favorable and the seedling trees
failed to come up to expectations.
Another severely stubbed toe is frequently
found with men who bought trees from unprin-
cipaled nurserymen, planted, nurtured and wait-
ed ten years for the promised fruit and finally
found them nothing but a species of hickory. A
well-posted orchardist stated to the writer not
long since that therehhad been more crookedness
and rascality practised by unprincipled pecan
nurserymen than in any other business in the
world of like magnitude. Whether this state-
ment is absolutely true or not, there has been
$
153 &
ph
s,1a 14,
/ ( l 1
" l‘14
sent to investigate cut open the stomach of the
owl’s carcass nailed to the(barn door, and to the
astonishment of the farmer showed him the re-
mains of nine field mice, which the owl had des-
troyed. The orchardist by destroying owls and
such like birds which prey upon mice, had made
it easy for the mice to multiply and destroy his
trees.
Our American Humane Education Society pub-
lishes a leaflet entitled, “How the Birds Help
the Farmer.” It treats briefly of forty of the
more common birds, whose presence in orchard,
garden, and field is an economic necessity. For
the sake of the birds this leaflet ought to be cir-
culated widely, but we would most especially
recommend it for those who do not yet realize
that successful farming is impossible without the
co-operation of the birds.
M %)
1' *
The tree used as an example in this table is
an actual record. It was a grafted tree and
bloomed when two years old, but threw off the
blooms without producing a nut The next year
it produced seven nuts and the year following
again threw off the blooms. From this time on
it increased steadily in bearing capacity with an
occasional setback from various causes. The
price for the nuts upon which this table is based
is 25 cents per pound. The tree in question pro-
duces nuts that are in demand at from 50 to 75
cents per pound. If all the thirty trees on the
acre produced equal to the record, then, instead
of nuts to the value of $4,507 being gathered, the
amount would have been $8,114 or $12,171. These
figures look pretty good, don’t they?
It is needless to say that it is not well to count
chickens before they are hatched in pecan orch-
arding as in every other line of endeavor. It
is highly probable that there are individual trees
that have been shown a greater yield than the
one used for this illustration, but it is needless
to say that there is not an acre in the state of
Mississippi, or any other Southern state for that
matter, that has come up to these figures. If
the orchardist can only realize one-half or one-
third of what is shown in this table, he has a
splendid investment, and that is being done by
a number of successful men who have gone into
the business and combined common sense with
energy. In a comparatively few years the man
with ten acres will be in a position to care for
and educate a family, as well as make reasonable
provision for the future of his children. While
the orchard is coming into profitable bearing, the
ground between the trees is not lost, but is util-
ized in the growing of regular crops, oranges,
figs, letc.
Pecan nurserymen and real estate dealers fre-
quently urge nut orcharding as a better invest-
ment for the future protection of a family than
life insurance. Solicitors for life insurance count-
er with the proposition that the theory is excel-
lent, but the practice a dead failure. That while
while it is undoubtedly possible to carry this plan
of saving to a successful termination, few people
will do so. Be this as it may, the pecan offers a
splendid field for the intelligent investment of
capital and energy. All three elements, intelli-
gence, capital and energy, are required to bring
about the best results. The cash capital required
may be small, butthe store of energy and intel-
ligence must b in sufficient quantities to insure
success.
A pecan tree is not supposed to come into full
bearing until it is fifty or more years of age. The
seedling trees continue to increase in bearing ca-
pacity until much older than this figure, and
while the grafted tree has not as yet been sub-
jected to the test of time, indications are that it
will not be radically different from the seedling
in this respect.
' There are numbers of pecan trees in Missis-
sippi more than 100 years old that are still bear-
ing full crops and are apparently hardy and good
for another century. Several of these are in the
city of Jackson, of original forest growth, are
three feet in diameter and bear more than 500
KILLING OFF THE FRIENDS.
A fruit grower in Wisconsin recently had the
value of owls impressed upon him in such a way
as he will never forget. It was a bitter experience
for him and a good object lesson not only to or-
chardiste but everyone who does not recognize
the usefulness and importance of their “friends in
feathers.”
This fruit grower had, by care and painstaking
wrork, succeeded in bringing his apple orchard
up to a point where it was capable of yielding
a product valued at $8,000 a year, only to have
the trees girdled by mice and practically des-
troyed in one winter. Nailed up on the orchard-
ist’s barn door was the carcass of an owl which
he had shot and put up as a warning to other owls
Granger celebrated on July 24 the completion
of sixty-six miles of improved highway leading
into that town.
/2
L 5
Hu
Pecan, the Finest of all Nuts Commissioner of Agriculture of Mississippi
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Texas City Times (Texas City, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, August 9, 1912, newspaper, August 9, 1912; Texas City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1576795/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Moore Memorial Public Library.