Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting: Battle Creek, Michigan, September 10 and 11, 1934
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting: Battle Creek, Michigan, September 10 and 11, 1934
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
Along the Wabash River is probably the largest native northern pecan
grove consisting of several hundred acres in which it is estimated there
are more than 20,000 bearing-size pecan trees. At gathering time in the
fall this is a very busy place. It is a source of revenue to many
besides the owners.
I was at this grove two weeks ago and was told there that each year
school begins the first of August so they can dismiss during October and
November to allow the school children to gather pecans during those two
months. School teachers in that territory are required to sign a
contract to that effect. This grove lies between Shawneetown and New
Haven, which are eighteen miles apart.
The town of New Haven has a population of about 400. I was told last
fall by one of the three pecan buyers there that, in one day a few years
ago, the three of them paid more than $15,000 for pecans for one day's
delivery. This of course did not represent the total day's sales for
this territory as many of them were sold at Shawneetown. So one can
easily see why the people there are anxious for their children to help
in this harvest, it being the chief source of fall income to many poor
people, who are given one-half of all the pecans they gather. Often on
or after a windy day the amount gathered by each one makes a splendid
day's wages. Many make a practice of coming a distance each fall for
this harvest. One party from St. Louis told me last fall that was his
twenty-sixth year at that grove.
This grove is surrounded by smaller ones and many single trees growing
on cultivated land. None of the native nut trees in this section have
ever had any care whatever, except the ones growing in cultivated
fields, and those only farm crop cultivation. Many of the native
seedlings seldom bear and some others are shy or irregular bearers. But
it is noticeable how much better as a rule those produce that have farm
crop cultivation or stand in favorable locations.
This is plainly evident in many instances where trees in the last few
years have been cleared around and cultivated, or where an individual
tree is standing alone without cultivation, but has plenty of space,
food and moisture. An excellent example of this is the Littlepage tree
in Enterprise that is probably 35 years old, has never been cultivated
but stands in a well used stock lot and has been an annual bearer since
a small tree.
On the other hand, near here are a number of trees around which the land
had been cultivated in farm crops until about ten years ago, and these
trees produced well, but since that time the land has been abandoned and
has grown up in a thicket and the production of these trees has been
greatly reduced.
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