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Walnuts and the Hickories — Part 6

It is the lustrous foliage that makes this tree the most beautiful of all the hickories. The deep, perpendicular roots that make transplanting a difficult matter among all the hickories have probably kept this one from the full recognition it deserves at the hands of nurserymen and planters. Its narrow range in sections that do not lack beautiful trees is another cause. In fact, the tree itself was not really discovered by a competent observer until 1890, although the nuts were seen by Michaux as early as 1802. The tree is rare in the Southeast, but is common in southern Arkansas. The fine specimen in the garden of the Department of Agriculture at Washington proves its hardiness in that latitude, and brings its good qualities to the attention of the public.

Since we have all the hickories here in our Eastern States, it certainly behooves us to foster them, and share them with the rest of the world. The first step is to learn how best to propagate and transplant the various species. The next is to plant them freely, and so set forth their superior merits to all who see these plantations. There are few species which do not repay the cost in returns substantial as well as aesthetic. Hickory nuts and lumber are in constant demand, so each year adds to the value of the trees.

Pecan (Hicoria Pecan, Britt.)--Large, thick-trunked tree with broad top; 100 to 170 feet high, 4 to 6 feet in diameter at base. Bark light reddish brown, broken into small, scaly plates; branches smooth, twigs pubescent, with orange-coloured lenticels. Wood light brown, compact, heavy, hard, not strong. Buds small, yellow, pointed, pubescent, with narrow scales that elongate slightly in spring. Leaves 12 to 20 inches long, of 9 to 17 leaflets, short petioled, often falcate, lanceolate, serrate, bright yellow-green above, paler below; petioles yellow. Flowers: staminate in catkins, profuse; pistillate terminal, in spikes; each flower greenish, scurfy, 4-angled, tapering. Fruit 3 to 11 in cluster, pointed at both ends, elongated, husk thin, 4-angled, winged at sutures which open at maturity; nut smooth, reddish, cylindrical, thin shelled; kernel sweet, with red, astringent, granular coat. Preferred habitat, low, rich ground near streams. Distribution, southern Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, and Southern States bordering the Mississippi River to central Alabama. Range extended by cultivation into all Southern States. Uses: Most valuable native nut tree. Wood not much used in construction; excellent for fuel. Fine shade and ornamental tree.

One of the things that solaced Evangeline's people, homesick for their lost Acadia, and wandering in a new and unknown region, was the wealth of sweet, nutritious nuts that grew on trees the Indians called pecans. The "Cajons" called the trees, Pecanier, translating the name into their own language. Twice it stood between them and famine before they became established along the lower courses of the Great River.

The salvation of the pecan tree is the inferiority of its wood. Being brittle, it does not commend itself to the makers of wagon tongues and axe handles. Many a superb specimen adorns the roadside and more than pays its way at nut harvest, while other hickories have all been felled and dragged off to the factory. No finer tree adorns the avenues of Southern cities than the pecan. Furthermore, the value and importance of the nut crop is an ever-increasing quantity. Orchards of pecans are being planted, large thin-shelled nuts being chosen for seed. Grafting and budding have been attempted, but usually failed. Success in this is coming and will quickly improve the character of the nuts, only the trees with the best nuts being used for propagation by enterprising growers. Good seed cannot be depended upon to reproduce itself in the fruit of the seedling trees. Cions and buds produce the same sort of nuts, when they come to bear, as the parent tree.

Pecans are, 95 per cent. of them, still gathered in the woods. Buyers pay nut gatherers from 3 cents to 5 cents per pound for them at the railroad. The retailer gets 15 cents to 75 cents per pound. The yield varies with the years, and quantities are kept over in cold storage against a nut famine. The prices fluctuate surprisingly, and offer great opportunities for speculation.

The shiny red pecans in the grocer's box owe their polish and fresh colour to rapid friction with other nuts in revolving barrels. Unfortunately this process restores the bloom of youth to the shells of stale nuts which are commonly mingled with the fresh ones. In many places the nuts are cracked and shelled, the meats sold at 50 cents to 60 cents per pound. There is economy of time, at least, in this for the confectioner and the cook.