The pecan is the major nut crop in Oklahoma. The timber growth along the
rivers and creeks contains enough pecan trees, if they were properly
distributed, to make one continuous pecan grove entirely across the
state.
Pecan improvement work is only in its beginning. The Oklahoma Pecan
Grower's Association was organized in 1926. It is devoted to the general
improvement of the pecan, and to the dissemination of information gained
by the members from their experience and observation. Dr. Frank Cross,
head of the Department of Horticulture of our A & M College at
Stillwater, is very active in nut improvement and is giving us much
valuable assistance. Early in the history of our association we began to
graft the large improved varieties on our seedling trees. True, many
mistakes were made. I recall when all our trees producing small and
inferior nuts, were cut down level with the ground, and the sprouts
growing from the roots, were budded or grafted to paper-shells. This
meant a long wait for production. We soon realized it was better to stub
back the limbs and graft these, or permit the sprouts to develop and bud
them, plus saving most of the framework of the trees, which gives us
heavy production of grafted pecans in a short time.
Competing growth, that is underbrush and all kinds of trees other than
pecans, rob the grove of moisture, sunlight, and plant food. This growth
was formerly removed by hand grubbing, but now with a large bulldozer it
is pushed right out of the ground into piles where it is burned. Now the
ground is clean, no stumps to grub out, and ready for a cover-crop or
clean cultivation. Nothing remains but pecan trees, some elm, hackberry
and oak, too large for the bulldozer. These are poisoned and burned
right where they stand the following winter. For poisoning a mixture of
two pounds of white arsenic and a pound of caustic soda to a gallon of
water, if applied from an oilcan with a spout in an open circle chopped
in the bark so as to girdle the tree, will usually deaden it in a short
while. Within the year nothing is left but pecan trees. These are
watched carefully for production and shelling quality and, if not
desirable, or standing too thick, are removed for greater spacing for
permanent trees.
Today, only the smaller pecan trees are top worked, either to named
varieties or to selected seedlings. Due to changed conditions of market
and labor, the native pecan has come into its own. The pecan sheller
buys 90% of the native pecans. He will pay only a few cents more for the
big paper-shell. The native pecan is as staple as butter and eggs. Every
produce man buys them for the shelling plants. This leaves the big
paper-shell to seek a special market at an advertising cost. Due to the
small differential in the wholesale price of the native and the
paper-shell, the larger native trees are no longer top-grafted but are
encouraged in every way for heavy production.
Thus, when creek and river bottom thickets are opened up to sunshine and
air, nothing left but pecan trees properly spaced, and this on land
usually considered worthless, these trees will quadruple in production
and pay a handsome return on a $200 per acre valuation. This is a real
and altogether possible two-story agriculture to those who are fortunate
enough to own undeveloped pecan timber land. Many of our members have
beautiful groves redeemed from the wild with bounteous crops of nuts
overhead and cattle grazing on enriching cover crops underneath. The
pecan means a lot to the farmers of Oklahoma. The average yearly tonnage
is about 16,000,000 pounds, with a peak production of 30,000,000 pounds.
This amounts to an average of $2,000,000 annually, with a peak of
$5,091,000.
I want to show you what it means to some of our members to develop their
native pecans, either as natives or grafted to improved varieties. The
proceeds from one lone pecan tree in Mr. Skorkosky's cotton patch paid
the taxes on his farm several different years. Thus encouraged, he
redeemed a small thicket, added a few nursery trees of paper-shells,
about ten acres in all, which now often makes a return equal to the rest
of the farm. Mr. Kramer paid $1,000 for 10 acres, with part in seedling
pecans. He sold $1,000 worth of pecans several different times, and the
rest of the farm makes a good return in pasture and hay. He also has 51
acres that often makes a return of $50 per acre in pecans, besides
pasturing 20 Herfords. Mr. Kramer destroys trees by girdling. Mr. Pfile
makes it a business to buy farms on which there are pecan thickets. One
farm has 70 acres, all top-grafted to improved varieties. Trees were
small and no production for five years, supporting production for the
next four years. Tenth year grossed $8,500; eleventh year, $5,400;
twelfth year, $1,800, and this year his conservative estimate is
$10,000. Mr. Camp has 600 acres in pecans, 90% improved varieties. He
planted 50 acres on upland sandy land on terraces, with pecan trees 40
feet apart and an apple tree between each two pecan trees. The tenth
year he produced 8,000 pounds of paper-shells and 4,000 bushels of
apples. More recently he planted 125 acres on upland, but planted the
pecans 60 feet apart on terraces with an apple tree between. In this
orchard he produces 3/4 of a bale of cotton per acre and plants vetch in
the fall between cotton rows. In October he had four crops on this land,
cotton, vetch, apples and pecans. He says apple trees alternated with
pecans on terraces are OK. Cotton, potatoes and sweet potatoes between
the terraces for the first ten years are OK, but vetch as a winter cover
crop to improve the soil must not be neglected. Grover Hayden has the
largest native pecan grove in the world--1,800 acres fenced hog tight.
He started 31 years ago as a farm hand. He had rather have 500 acres of
pecans than 1,000 acres of alfalfa. Now after 30 years he owns the place
at a purchase price of $90,000, not counting improvements and equipment.
His average production is about 300,000 pounds per year. In 1935, he
produced 400,000. He held back his 1941 crop and together with his 1942
crop, he sold both for $61,000. Think of the faith a man must have in
pecans in Oklahoma to go in debt for $71,000 as Mr. Hayden did! He rode
a pony that was mortgaged for all it was worth from Arkansas to this
ranch.
Those of us who do not have native or seedling pecan trees to work with,
must develop orchards from nursery trees. I was raised on a poor farm in
Missouri. I always had a desire to take a poor piece of land and see
what I could do to improve it. Consequently, I planted 225 improved
pecan trees of 25 different varieties and all other kinds of nut trees,
fruit trees and a variety of berries on a piece of worn-out upland,
pronounced by our county agent to be the poorest piece of ground in our
county, and predicted it would be a complete failure.
I planted the pecan trees 60 feet apart, and interplanted with other nut
and fruit trees. The trees were planted on the contour with youngberries
and many others planted in rows between the tree rows, making a perfect
soil conservation arrangement. Barnyard fertilizer was used to start the
trees. Every September, vetch and rye were sown as a cover-crop and
soil-builder and disked into the soil the following spring. Clean
cultivation is practiced during the summer to conserve moisture. This
procedure has been adhered to most rigidly without a single crop
failure. At 12 years most of the trees are producing $25 worth of
paper-shells. The youngberries and plants sold have paid the expense of
the orchard and a handsome profit besides, until the trees needed all
the room. This project has proved to my satisfaction that profitable
nuts and fruit crops can be grown on upland, if soil conservation and
improvement are practised. The limiting factors of nut and fruit
production are plant food and moisture, and if these are supplied, good
production is assured.