Eastern North Carolina Encyclopedia/Pecans in North Carolina
Pecans in North Carolina
By W. M. ROPER, Petersburg, Va.
The pecan is the oldest food crop in the South. Before Raleigh, DeSoto, Columbus, the pecan was gathered and eaten by the first Americans. Prevailing necessity now calls for a basic change in our food regime, a change from animal to vegetable, the primal factor of which will be nuts. "To nuts, then, must we look for the future sustenance of the race", says a national dietetic expert. "The nut growers of the future will be the aristocrats of the agricultural world. Half a century hence the nut crop will far exceed in volume and in value our present animal industry".
In line with this existing and increasing demand for nuts, together with the peculiar adaptability of this section for the culture of pecans, the choicest of all nuts, is the campaign just begun by the agricultural forces of the State having for its object the planting of a million pecan trees in Eastern North Carolina in the next four years.
The campaign is fostered by the Department of Agriculture and the Extension Division of the North Carolina State College of Agriculture, co-operating with the extension workers and the county farm agents. C. D. Matthews, State Horticulturist, and H. M. Curran, Farm Forester, with the assistance of W. N. Roper of Petersburg, Virginia, an experienced pecan grower, familiar with all phases of pecan culture, will have direct supervision over the campaign.
It is planned to have twenty-five men in each county plant 100 pecan trees each year for four years, and to have every farmer plant a dozen or more trees around his home and farm lot. Mr. Roper will give advice as to soils, locations and planting; how the trees may be secured and the prices that should be paid for them. Arrangements have been made to secure for planters the very best trees of right varieties, propagated by methods best suited to North Carolina and at prices much lower than those often paid for indifferent trees. Since the two most important steps in successful pecan culture are selection of varieties and of locations in which to plant them, these matters will receive particular attention during the campaign. A specialist from the department, working with the county agents, will assist growers in the after-care and the culture of the trees. Stuart, Schley, Success and Alley will be recommended, the choice of these depending on the character of the soil and the exact location in which they are to be planted. These have been tested and their worth proved in the State.
There are seedling pecan trees in Eastern Carolina which, at 30 years of age, have a trunk diameter of two and a half feet with a height of 65 feet, and produce crops that sell for $150.00 or more in a single season. Older and larger trees produce from 400 to 700 pounds annually. There are young budded trees bearing record crops. A Stuart tree in Craven County, 7 years old, bore 30 pounds; a tree in Scotland County, 8 years old, bore 50 pounds, another in Wake County, at Raleigh, 10 years old, bore a bushel of pecans this season, and a list of like trees might be carried into the hundreds. Young groves of budded trees ranging from 200 to 1700 trees are now in profitable commercial bearing in the State. Trees of right varieties under proper conditions begin to yield profitable commercial returns at 8 to 10 years and planters may expect an average of 40 pounds per tree when they are 12 to 15 years old. Ten years is not long to wait when you have the land for other farm purposes and increase its value five to ten fold during the time. A pecan grove the first year it is planted, adds from $50 to $100 in value to each acre of land and continues this rate of increase annually for several years.
Ten to 20 acres of pecans planted now, would, within 10 or 15 years support an average family. The land meantime will not have to be withdrawn from farm use. The culture and care given other crops planted on it will be ideal for the pecans if fertilizer is used and leguminous crops for fallow are planted in proper rotation. Trees planted the usual distance of 50 to 60 feet apart each way, 17 or 12 trees to the acre, interfere very little with field work when they are young.
It is not believed that the demand for pecans will be met in a century. Americans are fast becoming a race of nut eaters. In 1920 the nut importations amounted to $58,752,801 as against $3,484,651 in 1900. These were consumed in addition to the nuts grown in America. The Secretary of the National Pecan Growers' Association estimates that not 10 per cent of our population has ever tasted a paper shell pecan, and that of the really fine nuts not enough have ever been produced in a single year to furnish one nut apiece to the population of America.
Pecan trees are long lived and reach tremendous size; are wind firm and continue to bear crops for an indefinite period. While in common with trees of all kinds they have their pests of insects and diseases they are entirely free from the scale pests and from insects and diseases that do so much injury to the various fruit trees. They have been growing in America for many centuries and thus far have not been affected by any serious enemy. Texas reports what is said to be the largest pecan tree, reputed to be over 800 years old. Its largest measured crop was 1400 pounds or 35 bushels of nuts.
Pecans are produced commercially only in the Southern States of America. When there are enough to "go round" the whole world will be a market for the surplus. The South has a greater monopoly of the pecan than of cotton.
North Carolina with its strong, rich soils in combination with an ideal climate that produces pecans to perfection, offers unusual opportunities for pecan culture. With a million pecan trees planted in the State, and a Pecan Growers' Association to market the product, Carolina will take first place in the South in the production of pecans, and the neat homes, so characteristic of the orange groves of Florida, and of the fruit farms of the far west, will dot the roadsides and give evidence of its thrift and prosperity.