Page:Eastern North Carolina Encyclopedia.djvu/19

 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. Thirteen