Peculium

“ As the pecan is a forest tree in many sections of the country, the inference is, that it needs no cultivation, no fertilizer, in short, is amply able to take care of itself. So it is, but not able to yield, at the same time, the large crops of nuts that are the object of its being planted.
From the woods, there is one lesson which it would be well for everyone to learn; a lesson, not of the trees, but of the soil, of the dense mass of mold, of partially decayed leaves, of vegetable matter, of humus that covers the forest floor. The soil in the pecan orchard needs humus, vegetable matter ”

“ 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. ”

“ I have been fifteen years in the growing of pecan trees in the South, and I am free to confess that the most disturbing element in my life at the present time is the fact that we "have known so many things that weren't true." ”

“ Female. Black. Pectus silvery; scutellum deep black; abdomen conical, with broad cinereous bands, first and second segments with broad interrupted testaceous bands, a testaceous mark on each side of the third segment at the base; legs rather long, femora with black tips; præbrachial vein forming a right angle at its flexure, curved inward from thence to its tip, discal transverse vein curved inward near its hind end, parted by less than its length from the border and from the flexure of the præbrachial. Length of the body 31⁄2 lines ”

“ This, together with the [Pg 23] 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. ”

“ Every grower of the pecan should be a judge of pecan nuts, and the ideas of growers, while they may differ on certain minor points, should agree on the more important characters of the nut. To enable growers, nurserymen and judges to work on a common standard of merit, a scale of points, in which each individual characteristic of the nut may receive a certain fixed number of credits, is indispensable. ”

“ Aurata, capite pectoreque albis, abdomine purpureo, guttis lateralibus albis, basi viridi, lateribus pedibusque cyaneis, alis fuscis basi cinereis, halteribus testaceis.
Male and Female. Head and pectus with white tomentum and hairs; mystax with a few black bristles; mouth and antennæ black; third joint of the latter linear, conical at the tip, longer than the first and the second together; thorax with cupreous-gilded tomentum; abdomen purple, green at the base, blue and with a row of white dots along each side; legs blue; wings brown, cinereous towards the base, veins black ”

“ The Pecopteris (Fig. 4, P. heterophylla) or comb-fern, is so called from its stiff thick leaflets being in some species arranged along the stalk like the teeth along the centre of a comb. Of all the plants of the coal-measures this is the one that approaches most closely to living nature. It appears to be almost identical with the pteris, of which one species is well known as the bracken of our hill-sides. Dr. Hooker figures together a frond of a New Zealand species (P. esculenta) and a fossil frond from the Newcastle pits. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In investigating a pecan for propagating purposes, it is necessary to examine it from two standpoints, first, the tree qualities, and second, the qualities of the nut itself.
The tree must be of a thrifty nature, a rapid grower, not especially subject to any particular diseases, must bear regularly, and the crops must be of a good average as to quantity. When observing a great number of pecan trees, it soon becomes apparent that some varieties grow much faster than others. ”

“ The distance apart at which the pecan trees should be set must depend upon the character of the soil and the amount of fertility and moisture it contains. [Pg 103] If planted too close, the trees may become their own worst enemies. Too close planting will not prove satisfactory. It is doubtful whether the trees should ever be planted closer than forty feet apart even on light lands, while on heavier soils this distance should be increased to sixty, seventy-five or eighty feet. ”

“ Too little attention on the part of propagators has been given to the kind, source and quality of the seed used to raise stocks for propagation work. The main object held in view in making a selection for seed purposes is to get just as many nuts as possible in the pound. The result of this policy is, that, without question, inferior seedlings are often used for stock; they lack stamina and vigor. Frequently in a nursery of budded or grafted stocks, or in a young pecan orchard, a wide variation in the size and vigor of the trees can be noticed. ”

“ It is generally stated that the pecan is a slow grower, and yet I have seen trees from twelve to fourteen years old which measured from thirty-five to fifty-seven inches in circumference at the base, while under less favorable circumstances others stood still for a period of six or seven years, or until they had accumulated sufficient energy to overcome the untoward conditions of their environments. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A buff-colored moth, having a body about one-half inch long and a wing expanse of one and three-fourths inches, with four transverse brown stripes on the front wings, lays its greenish or white eggs in clusters of five to twelve hundred on the underside of the lower leaves of the pecan trees. These eggs hatch in less than a week, and the colonies of young caterpillars at first feed upon the undersides of the leaves. They cast their skins four times, each time increasing in size and changing their color somewhat. ”

“ Pectinatum, pectinate, is a pinnatifid leaf, whose segments are remarkably narrow and parallel, like the teeth of a comb, as the lower leaves of Myriophyllum verticillatum, and those of Hottonia palustris, Engl. Bot. t..
Inæquale, unequal, sometimes called oblique, when the two halves of the leaf are unequal in dimensions, and their bases not parallel, as in Eucalyptus resinifera, Exot. Bot. t., and most of that genus, as well as of Begonia. ”

“ Again, seedling trees may be grown or purchased and set out in orchard form. When these have grown to an inch or so in diameter and have developed several branches, they may be top-worked. This method of securing a pecan orchard is somewhat slow, and is open to the objection that the buds or grafts frequently fail to take, and in consequence the task of top-working extends over a number of years, resulting in trees of irregular size and shape. ”

“ VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA.—In these States the different named varieties have not been grown and fruited long enough to warrant any very strong recommendations, Pabst, Stuart and Jewett have been planted in southeastern North Carolina and have succeeded, but on the whole, for the entire region of these three States, the most satisfactory and staple progress in pecan [Pg 95] culture will probably come from the introduction of local varieties of merit. ”

“ The pecans there are not only necessarily hardier, but have to mature their fruit in a shorter season, which is all important in a variety for northern planting, as it has been shown that the pecan is hardy in tree considerably north of where it will mature its fruit properly. ”

“ I have been working with pecan trees since 1930 and today find myself with more questions than answers. We are growing at present about 37 varieties of pecans. We are reaching certain notions which we hope are right. The hybrids are fine and make wonderful trees but I doubt if they are the answer to our problem. With these remarks I dispose of further discussion of the Burlington, Rockville, McCallister and Gerardi varieties. ”

“ Leaves, in such cases where a connexion between fronds and stems is known, large and highly compound and of the Pecopteris type, borne in more or less crowded spirals (Psaronius polystichi) , in four rows (P. tetrastichi) , or in two opposite rows (P. distichi) . Leaves deciduous, leaving a clearly defined oval scar containing the impression of the leaf-trace in the form of an open U, or a closed oval with a small inverted V-shaped band a short distance below the upper end of the long axis of the oval (figs. 297, 298) ”

“ Many of the pecan trees planted in groves have not fulfilled the hopes of their planters. These trees, raised from large selected nuts, for which the planters paid a dollar or more per pound, have not come true to seed. Some are irregular, shy bearers; others, when they do condescend to produce a few nuts, bear small-sized, inferior nuts, not larger than ordinary playing marbles, while some produce a large crop of good marketable nuts. Some are unhealthy, subject to the attacks of scab and rosette. ”

“ DEVELOPING A NUT INDUSTRY IN THE NORTHEAST BY DR. G. A. ZIMMERMAN, PENNSYLVANIA We have all heard of the pecan. No doubt most of us have traveled through the South at some time or other and have entertained a wish for a pecan grove. A personal friend of mine, a minister, told me recently that the only time he was ever tempted to invest in a commercial proposition was when a real estate agent laid a picture of a pecan grove before him. I had entertained the thought that some day I might possess an orchard. ”

“ The great objection to grafted trees is the first cost, and yet, in the face of that objection, it is best to plant grafted trees even if fewer of them are planted. If grafted trees are out of the question, then plant seedlings and top-work them. Grow the seedlings from nuts if necessary; but to those who live in sections where pecans can be grown, let me say, plant pecan trees; plant budded or grafted trees if you can—but plant pecan trees. ”

“ However, once in a while, nature, through her wonderful workings, has produced a tree that bears large crops of fine nuts regularly, and when the seedling pecan is grafted or budded from this kind of tree the trees so propagated take on the qualities of the parent and begin bearing very early. I have frequently taken pictures of small pecan trees not over three feet high, each bearing a cluster of large, fine nuts. ”

“ I don't recall whether he mentioned the Moneymaker in a previous letter or not, but he did mention the Russell and some other varieties.
President Morris: We have a number of pecan trees about New York that have been grown on private estates. Pecans have been planted in Connecticut and Massachusetts. You run across seedling trees here and there, and a good many of them are perfectly hardy. They are very apt to be infertile. The staminate flowers are apt to be destroyed because they mature so late, and they may not carry any nuts. Pollination is imperfect as a rule, and nuts may not fill. ”

“ The herd keeps together in a close throng, the males in advance, each mother having her young behind her. The noise made by the animals can be heard a long distance, not only on account of the dull, hoarse sounds which they make, but still more by reason of the cracking of the dead branches which they break in their impetuous progress.
Both day and night the Peccaries search for food. They eat all kinds of arboreal fruit and roots, and their teeth are so strong that they can easily open the hardest of palm seeds. They often do great mischief to the crops. ”

“ The buds are eaten out and destroyed by this insect at the time they start into growth. In certain sections spring working of pecans has been abandoned entirely owing to the destruction wrought by this pest. But notwithstanding all the drawbacks, pecan trees can be, should be and are propagated in large numbers by budding and grafting, and the seedling is becoming more and more a thing of the past. ”

“ Rather weak, 1° high or less; leaves flat and firm, persisting through the winter, at least twice longer than the culm; a sheathing purple scale at the base of the spike; staminate spike about 1 ́ long, clavate in anthesis, the purple scales ending in a very short and blunt whitish tip; pistillate spike narrower and mostly longer, the scales more abruptly contracted into a colored cusp and at length deciduous; perigynium obovate, much contracted below into a stipe-like base, very strongly nerved, entirely pointless, hairy above, covered by the scale. ”