THE PECAN SWINDLE
A national magazine had in June, 1910, as part of a full page advertisement the following:
"Surest Pecan Land. A pecan grove of five acres nets $2,500 yearly. No work—no worry—no loss of crop and little cost of upkeep. . . .
"The paper-shell pecan tree begins bearing at two years, produces fifty to two hundred pounds of nuts at seven years, and two hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds at ten years, increases yearly thereafter, and lives to the age of one hundred years in North Florida. Five acres will keep the average family in comfort the year round."
And the really curious part of it is that people bought their five acres with sweet and innocent faith.[1] For some actual facts of production see pages 211, 212.
It is of course not surprising that the yarns of the near swindlers' prospectus should have resulted in little but disappointment, with each of their acres with its twenty trees, a fabulous number, bearing a fabulous crop with fabulous regularity.
Indeed, figures are especially deceptive when one gets to multiplying yields per tree by a number of trees per acre. It
"" Another Chicago vendor of distant lands wrote me in 1912:
"From a careful investigation the following estimate seems to be a conservative one:
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5A. at Age Per Tree Per Acre Per 5 Acres 25c lb. Fourth year 1lb. 20 lbs. 100 lbs. $25.00 Eighth year 45 lbs. 900 lbs. 4,500 lbs. $1,125.00 Fifteenth year 220 lbs. 4,400 lbs. 22,000 lbs. $5,500.00 Twentieth year 350 lbs. 7,000. lbs. 35,000 lbs. $8,750.00
pied a root pasture of 6,250 square feet: the inside trees had but 2,500." (Letter, C. A. VanDuzee, Cairo, Georgia, August 11, 1927.)
In this connection I wish to suggest experiment with various stocks, for example such upland pecan stocks as are mentioned on page 202. Surely there is no shortage of heat, light, moisture, or fertility. The swamp pecan root is perhaps a poor feeder. Is there not a better stock?
