In the horticultural development of the country, new fruits, new groups of fruits, new fruit industries are coming into prominence. Our native fruits in particular are now receiving, in many parts of the country, a larger share of the attention which they have always merited, and none has proven itself more worthy of careful study and painstaking care than the pecan. Within the last ten or fifteen years it has rapidly emerged from a wild or semi-wild condition to the status of an orchard nut. The foundations of its culture were laid a considerable time ago, but only now is it coming to its own, its well merited standing among the fruits of the country. In any horticultural industry many questions must be asked of the plant, the soil, the climate, in short, of the plant in its environment. They must be answered aright, if the industry is to succeed. The newer the plant in cultivation, the more numerous the questions are, the more difficult to answer. In an endeavor to aid in solving some of the problems connected with the culture of the pecan this small volume has been prepared. Pecan culture has been the subject of careful study, observation and experimentation on the part of the author for a number of years and the results of these studies are presented in the following pages. To the many who have so kindly and willingly assisted in its preparation, my thanks are herein expressed. H. Harold Hume. |