Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/269

is truly astounding, ranging in North Carolina from 17 pounds to 1,246 pounds per acre.^[1]

It is not surprising that man should have a desire to start an industry when Nature has given such object lessons all the way from Indiana to Texas and from Texas to Georgia.

THE PECAN INDUSTRY STARTS

The pecan industry started with wild produce, and wild nuts are still marketed in large quantity, larger quantity than the produce of the grafted orchards.^[2]

Texas with her millions of pecan trees is easily the leader at the present time, although Albany, Georgia, with a million

1. Results of pecan variety test at Lower Coastal Plain Station, Willard, North Carolina.

   Table 2—Yield Per Acre Per Year (Trees Planted 1906-07)
   (Calculated on Basis of 27 Trees to the Acre)

   Variety	No. of Trees	1918-17 6-year Period	1918-22 5-year Period	1923-27 5-year Period	1918-27 10-year Period
   Stuart	28	19	327	386	357
   Schley	19	47	68	285	177
   Van Deman	17	6	56	133	95
   Frotscher	20-3	145	666	1012	839
   Sweetmeat	1	33	1046	1437	1246
   Teddy	3	7	21	13	17
   Moneymaker	2	37	537	1008	773

   "These trees have been planted in typical soil in the particular sections and have been given good commercial orchard attention such as cultivation and cover crops but have not received commercial fertilizers." (Letter, C. D. Matthews, Chairman, Department of Horticulture, North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering, Raleigh, February 4, 1928.)

2. In the fall of 1926 one hundred and twenty carloads of wild pecans, worth $500,000, were shipped from Gonzales, Texas. They were gathered along the San Antonio River and other streams near by.

   "There were more than a hundred people employed for several months this past winter and spring in picking and assorting pecans at Durant, Oklahoma.

   "It is estimated that more than five hundred thousand dollars' worth of pecans were shipped out of the Red River valley last year, and that Durant handled half of the shipment from this territory." (Article on "Durant Nut Center," by John M. White, County Agent, in The Oklahoma Extension News published at Stillwater, Oklahoma. September, 1927.)