PECAN TREE CULTIVATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8879, 16 May 1892, Page 6

PECAN TREE CULTIVATION.

Now that some attention is being paid to the cultivation of the pecan nut tree in the northern portion of New Zealand, any information respecting its growth and habits will no doubt be willingly perused by our readers. In a recent Texas paper we find the following information, apparently obtained as the result of actual observation, supplied by Mr. Herbert Post, which it would bo well to pay attention to. All writers speak of it- as a tree very impatient of transplantation, and in all cases where it is practicable J it would be well to plant the seeds where the trees are intended to grow. Mr. Post's remarks are as follow :—Will you kindly give me space in your columns to explain to . your readers why the pecan tree is an exception to the general rule of transplant- j ing trees. J.ike the hickory and black ; walnut, the pecan grows a long taproot, which must not be disturbed by attempting to transplant, the result being failure of 1 ultimate success. When the young pecan ! tree is eight inches above ground, the tap- ! root has grown to the length of two feet, j and one foot below the surface is larger j thin at the top of the ground. This result j of root growth prevents the removal of the j young tree, which cannot be done without ' breaking or injuring this long taproot, | which, if once destroyed, will never grow ; another. With the taproot broken, it is a waste of money and time to attempt transplanting. j

Many nurserymen are not aware of these facts and are offering the pecan trees for sale, with no intent to defraud or mislead, supposing there would be no more difficulty than in ordinary transplanting. Experience shows that you may transplant them with apparent success, but trees have been taken up after seven years' growth and found without a semblance of a taproot. They had dwindled along and made but a sickly growth, while trees on the same ground raised from seed planted where they grew were vigorous and thrifty, an 1, though three years younger, were much larger than the transplanted trees. In view of these lately developed facts, it is a waste ot money to plant anything but the pecan nut where the tree is to stand. Those who want to plant pecans this spring will find a great gain in soaking the nut four or five days before planting, which gives nearly the same results as if you had planted last fall. You gain one year by planting now that you would lose if you waited until next fall to plant. Domesticating the wild pecan is very easy, as it responds to cultivation, producing more and larger fruit, thinner shell and improved flavour, bearing at four and five years as productively as the wild tree does at six years. With wild trees here earning for their owners from $50 to per annum, it don't take long to figure up their value under cultivation.

I paid a man last year $57.G0 for the product of one tree, and the same tree had earned him for three previous years $50 annually. Here is one wild pecan tree, on which the owner had never expended one dollar, earning him on an average of four years £51.110 per annum, costing only the expense of gathering and taking the nuts to market. This tree is worth $519, because it is earning annually 10 per cent, on that valuation Take ten acres of such trocs, and when they come into bearing they earn more clear money than either oranges, lemons, figs, or olives can possibly do.

Planting 3-5 feet apart gives you 36 trees per acre. In between these you can grow other fruits with profit, miking your ground vastly more valuable than if only in the ordinary orchard products. In planting the pecan, you are annually adding material wealth to your lan 1, for when your other crops fail, you have here an income at very small cost, and one which lasts for generations. Taking the profits of the pecans on the above basis of earnings, and divide by four, and you have a sum of money per acre that would keep a good large-sized family from going to the poorhouse.

Ten acres of ?60 trees, with eachbearing as much as this one wild tree earned annually for its owner, and your earnings are of more clear profit than a bank ordinarily earns with a capital of §20U,000. Then, too, this wealth is obtained at a very small cost, either for the pecans for planting or the care of the trees. The planting per acre does not co-t. to exceed $3 lor the pecans of the be-t Texas thin shell, which have the best reputation in all the markets, being favourites over all the others.

For windbreaKs for orchards, the pecan is peculiarly valuable in this particular, that it rarely ever is torn up by the roots ; the long taproot going so deep prevents it. Planted .35 to 40 feel apart, in a few years the branches touch, and by that time it has leached a height, of 50 to GO feet. Lasting for hundreds of years, its value can hardly be estimated as a protection for orchards, be-ides the crop of outs annually, which earn a handsome sum of money. The enemies of the pecan are nothing compared with other nut and fruit trees—hardly worth taking into account.

Unlike ordinary orchard products, the pecan keeps for months, so th.it the market need not be overcrowded when they are first harvested. Here is an enterprise tiiat can be carried on with great profit by cooperative companies, ami plant hundreds of acres at small expen-e, but giving enormous earnings, lasting indefinitely. One thousand acres planted in pecans, when in bearing, earn, even if you cannot get but half earnings of tin; abovemetitioneii wild tree, upward of §90,01)0 per annum. Divide this sum by two, and it i" very satisfactory earnings. Nothing its the vegetable product pays handsomer profits for the cost of the enterprise, and California is well adapted to the growth of the pecan.