View of bud union, 99 View of whip graft, 100 Annular bud, 101 Rectangular planting system, 104 Hexagonal planting system, 105 Planting-board, 107 A nursery tree with good root system, 119 Taproot cut and uncut, 120 Spraying pecan trees, 131 Nut crackers of different types, 149 Woodson's power kernel extractor, 151 PREFACE. In the horticultural development of the country, new fruits, new groups of fruits, new fruit industries are coming into prominence. Our native fruits in particular are now receiving, in many parts of the country, a larger share of the attention which they have always merited, and none has proven itself more worthy of careful study and painstaking care than the pecan. Within the last ten or fifteen years it has rapidly emerged from a wild or semi-wild condition to the status of an orchard nut. The foundations of its culture were laid a considerable time ago, but only now is it coming to its own, its well merited standing among the fruits of the country. In any horticultural industry many questions must be asked of the plant, the soil, the climate, in short, of the plant in its environment. They must be answered aright, if the industry is to succeed. The newer the plant in cultivation, the more numerous the questions are, the more difficult to answer. In an endeavor to aid in solving some of the problems connected with the culture of the pecan this small volume has been prepared. Pecan culture has been the subject of careful study, observation and experimentation on the part of the author for a number of years and the results of these studies are presented in the following pages. To the many who have so kindly and willingly assisted in its preparation, my thanks are herein expressed. H. HAROLD HUME. Raleigh, N. C., Aug. 1, 1906. PART I. Introduction. Botany. THE PECAN AND ITS CULTURE. CHAPTER I. COMMERCIAL AND ORNAMENTAL IMPORTANCE OF THE PECAN. In all-around excellence, the pecan is equalled by none of the native American nut-bearing trees and certainly it is surpassed by no exotic species. It stands in the list of nut trees with but few equals and no superiors. With this fact known and admitted by all, it seems reasonable to suppose that the pecan will be grown and cultivated much more extensively than it now is. Its intrinsic worth deserves a large share of attention, more than it has received. At present it is gaining a position of so much importance as an orchard tree, that, ere long, it will become an extremely important item in the horticultural wealth of the Southern and Southwestern States.