| Since we have about 5 miles of the San Marcos river and huge native trees and there is a good supply of flint here, it is believed that Indians camped here or nearby and gathered pecans. Many artifacts have been found to make it believable. Pecans are a good source of energy, easily transportable, and can be stored in the cool winter months. It is even possible that they may have planted pecans at each of their campsites and returned to harvest them each fall, but they were not able to develop cultivation.. A Long Island man transported seedlings to New York and this lead to cultivation. The development by Southern farmers of grafting seedling trees has lead to the 500 pecan cultivars. George Washington has a large pecan grove at Mount Vernon of the native variety. Thomas Jefferson made pecans available in his white house in l781. In Texas, With the help of A and M, they are still developing and testing new cultivars. Some of the pecan varieties do better, develop less scab, grow bigger, etc, in warm climates, while others like our Central Texas climate. |