The Pecan and its Culture Part 7

_Plumpness_--The kernel should fill the sh.e.l.l and must be smooth, externally, with solid meat of fine and uniform texture, free from internal cavities and with high relative weight of kernel to sh.e.l.l.

_Color_--The kernel should be uniformly bright and attractive in color.

_Quality_--The flavor should be sweet and rich, free from bitterness or astringence of either meat or skin.

PART III.

Cultural.

CHAPTER VI.

PROPAGATION OF THE PECAN.

The pecan tree is difficult of propagation by budding or grafting.

Skillful propagators are satisfied with seventy-five per cent. of living buds or grafts, while very many have to be content with less. The difficulty is due, in part, to lack of skill; in part to lack of judgment in selecting good material with which to work; but in some regions it is due to the attacks of the bud-worm, _Proteopteryx deludana_, more than to anything else. 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.

SEEDLING VS. GRAFTED TREES.

It is a fact worthy of note that the beginning of every tree-fruit industry is marked by the use of seedling trees. In the later stages of the development of the industry the seedling, owing to a more intimate knowledge of its failings and shortcomings, gives way to the grafted[I]

tree. This stage has already been reached in pecan orcharding.

It has been stated that a certain percentage of pecans would produce nuts identical with those of the parent tree. The author has yet to find the first instance in which this was the case. This truth is borne out by the observations of others.

In view of the fact just stated, if a planter desires to secure a certain definite fixed variety of pecan, it can only be done by planting grafted trees. Even though all the seedlings were of good size, yet the variation in time of ripening, quality, prolificness, form and size would be against them. Take a certain quant.i.ty of each of a number of our largest pecans--Stuart, Van Deman, Centennial and Frotscher for instance--mix them together, and under average circ.u.mstances the mixed lot will sell for less money in the open market than the same varieties and the same nuts would if marketed separately. Mixed nuts, no matter how good the quality, cannot compete successfully in the market with a single uniform sample of the same or nearly the same quality.

Grafted trees will come into bearing at an earlier age than seedlings.

In the case of seedlings it is very difficult to say when they will begin to bear, while grafted trees of the more precocious varieties may be expected to bear quite a little fruit in six or eight years from the time of planting.

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.

PECAN STOCKS.

Nursery trees are propagated entirely on pecan stocks, and in the present state of our knowledge, it is the best stock to use. It may be that the pecan will grow and thrive as well on a number of different species of hickory, but definite information bearing on this point is lacking. _Hicoria tomentosa_, _H. alba_, and _H. aquatica_ have been used for stocks in North Carolina, Florida, and other States, the pecan being top-worked upon them. But for the present, at least, until our experimental knowledge is farther advanced, the safest advice is to use pecan stock only.

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. No satisfactory explanation has ever been offered, but there seems little reason to doubt that it is due to the use of heterogenous lots of seed for stock purposes. _The point must be emphasized, that greater care should be exercised in the selection of the seed used in nursery work._ Nuts from rapid-growing, vigorous, healthy trees only should be used. It is best to plant in spring only nuts which matured the previous autumn.

Preferably these nuts should be of fair or medium size for the variety to give the young seedling a fair start in life.

As already pointed out in regard to pecan shade trees for more northerly regions, so in the case of pecan nuts for use in raising stocks in northern sections. It is best to secure nuts from trees near the northern limits of nut production.

STORING AND PLANTING SEED NUTS.

If pecan nuts, intended for seed purposes, are stored and kept as nuts ordinarily are kept, they become dried out. Before they will germinate the following spring they must absorb all the moisture lost and considerably more; in consequence of which they are slow in starting. If too thoroughly dried out, many may fail to germinate.

To obviate this, and to insure better and more prompt germination, it is best to keep the seed nuts in moist sand or clay during the winter months. Procure a sufficient number of shallow boxes or trays; three feet by one and a half feet by six or eight inches will answer nicely.

These are to be used in stratifying the nuts. The earth to be used should preferably be good clean sand, free from organic matter, or, if this cannot be secured, clay will answer. Place a layer of the earth about one inch deep in the bottom of the boxes, then a single layer of nuts, then a two-inch layer of earth, and so on in alternating layers until the boxes are filled. These should then be slightly moistened and set aside in a sheltered place and covered with pine straw, leaves or straw.

In spring, when germination has just begun in the nuts and the tiny sprouts are beginning to appear, they should be planted in rows. The ground should be deeply plowed, well broken up, pulverized, and made moderately rich. Ground which produced a heavy crop of cowpeas, velvet beans or beggarweed the previous season is excellent for the purpose.

Farm-yard manure, well decomposed and plowed in the autumn previous, is one of the best manures to use. The ground should be lined off in perfectly straight rows four feet apart, running east and west, that, the buds may be inserted on the north side. The nuts should be planted four or five inches deep, depending upon their size and the character of the soil. Large nuts should be planted deeper than small ones, and in heavy soils nuts may be planted somewhat nearer the surface than in light sandy ones. The rows may be opened with a small turning plow, or, for lesser areas, with a shovel. Place the nuts, a foot apart, carefully in the bottom of the furrow, cover with a hoe, roll the ground if the weather is dry, and then scarify the surface with a weeder or a light harrow to prevent evaporation of the soil moisture. Or the ground may be mulched with pine-straw, gra.s.s, leaves or other suitable material. If no mulch is applied, then the surface of the ground Should be cultivated shallow from time to time.

Some propagators have adopted the plan, with good results, of planting the nuts in the nursery rows, in late fall.

CULTIVATION OF NURSERY SEEDLINGS.

From the time the young shoots begin to appear above the surface frequent shallow cultivation should be given. Once every ten days or two weeks is not too often, and the ground should be broken to a depth of one inch or so after every shower of rain. During dry weather more frequent cultivation, once every week, will be well repaid in the additional growth and vigor of the seedlings. A good commercial fertilizer, a.n.a.lyzing 5 per cent. phosphoric acid, 6 per cent. potash and 4 per cent. nitrogen, may be applied to advantage at the rate of fifteen hundred or two thousand pounds per acre. By the following autumn, the better seedlings will have ten or twelve inches of top, and two and a half or three feet of taproot. The following spring some may he whip-grafted at the crown, and by June, July and August of the same year many of them should have attained sufficient size for budding.

Those which are not of sufficient size at this time can be worked the following spring and summer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE IV. A Pecan Nursery.

_Photo by J. F. Jones._]

THE NECESSARY MATERIALS AND TOOLS.

The materials and tools used in grafting and budding are: a grafting iron, a mallet, budding knives, grafting wax, strips of waxed cloth and twine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 17. Grafting Iron.]

Of grafting irons there are a number of different kinds, but one after the general type shown in Fig. 17, works very well. It will be noticed that the blade is curved at the corners, and the edge instead of being straight is curved downward in the center. This type of blade in some measure prevents the bruising of the bark when splitting the branch in cleft-grafting. Such a grafting iron may be made by almost any blacksmith. However, a good stout knife may be used instead.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 18. Common Budding Knife.]

For use in grafting, an ordinary budding knife, one of which is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 18, is well nigh indispensable. No other knife is so well adapted to making the smooth, sloping cuts on the scions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: White's Budding Tool.

Galbreath's Budding Tool.

Nelson's Budding Tool.

PLATE V.]

Some persons can insert annular and veneer s.h.i.+eld buds rapidly and well with nothing but an ordinary budding knife. In general, however, a budding knife having two blades, placed parallel with a s.p.a.ce of three-quarters of an inch or an inch apart, is best. A very satisfactory knife may be made by fastening the blades of two ordinary budding knives on the sides of a piece of wood seven-eighths of an inch square and four inches in length. The blades can be firmly held in place by means of rivets and a piece of wire wound about the whole.

Three special budding knives, for use in pecan budding, have been introduced, one by Mr. Herbert C. White, of DeWitt, Ga., one by Mr. D.

Galbreath, of New Orleans, La., and the other by Mr. Wm. Nelson, of New Orleans, La. In these knives the blades are fixed seven-eighths of an inch, one and one-eighth inch, and three-fourths of an inch apart, respectively. These make it possible to cut the buds and the place where they are to be inserted on the stock exactly the same size, an essential point in pecan budding. They have not yet come into general use, although well recommended by some who have used them. The White budding tool is particularly well adapted for use in top-working trees.

A good grafting wax may be made according to a number of different formulas. Either of the following will be found satisfactory: