PECANOLOGY "Pecans Kritisized Frum Varius Angles" ------------------ Miss Mildred Moore, Bend, Texas Pecan wood was first used for the making of looms and yolks for oxen to pull by. The wood that was unfit for this purpose was burned. The stumps sprouted and the sprout was used largely in the South as a rod of correction. As its use fur this purpose has gradually declined, a good many sprouts are old enough to bare nuts. The first pecan was set by small boys whose fathers did not own the trees. The people let them sparingly on account of Malaria, but since the germ has been extracted by the Mosquitoes, they are not considered so dangerous. Statistics on pecan's are considered very valuable if they happen to be 1/2 of the fact. One of the greatest troubles seems to be over-production of high grade pecans. This is already being shown by this grade of pecans bringing only about\$1.00 per lb. Some people are showing some interest in setting out pecans by going back the next year to see if they live. The reason Eastern Varieties do better in the West and Western Varieties do better in the East is because cottonwood and willows do better on the hills while cat claw and mosquitoes do in the river bottoms. When you very proudly show a man a nice large pecan and he looks at it with content and says: "Down on a little branch where I use to live there grew a pecan tree. I don't know whether it’s there now or not, but the pecans were twice that large and the shells were so thin they had to shake them off on feather beds and use egg crates to ship them in.” What to say on an occasion like this is one of the most serious problems at the present time for the pecan man. One thing that is helping keep down over-production is by top-working heavy bearing trees with shy bearing varieties. This will with the aid of insect's and neglect accomplish the purpose for which it is intended. The pecan has been advertised so extremely that a few people know a pecan from a persimmon after a careful examination. The cities claim that the pecan Tree is beautiful and make's a fine shade, but trespassers get some of the nuts which destroys these qualities Some of the large pecan growers in Texas advocate pruning and fertilizing the pecan tree in summer with the single tree, in the winter it stock. Fertilizing with cockle burs and Bermuda grass, this seems to meet with the approval of the public. The Chairman on the program committee was solicited to take a part on the program by the business men, but unfortunately they were to busy to attend. You can convince most any one he can make a Million Dollars in 20 years with pecan, but he expects to make that much in one year doing something else. A man will water a razor back hog 365 days in a year and think nothing of it, but if he has to water a pecan tree 20 times he's likely to whip some of the children. We are learning very much about pecans by making the same mistake as others. These and many other Things to numerous to mention show that the pecan industry is getting the attention it so justly deserves.
