4 ms·

An Enslaved Gardener Transformed the Pecan into a Cash Crop

72 points by PaulHoule 9mo ago

bdcravens 9mo ago
> If composed of two parts, there is often a scion—the upper or shoot portion of a plant—which is joined with a separate rootstock to produce, if successful, a healthy grafted plant. And like that, I finally figured out why Toyota named their offshoot brand Scion.
varispeed 9mo ago
[flagged]
- jstanley 9mo ago
  If you think it's so easy, you can quit and start your own company and find out.
  - varispeed 9mo ago
    “If you are homeless, just buy a house.”
    - notahacker 9mo ago
      Unlike buying a house, writing software can be done without up front investment in one's spare time Turns out the value of it actually isn't just the code though...
      - ceejayoz 9mo ago
        > without up front investment If you don’t count a computer and the time it takes to learn.
        notahacker 9mo ago
        I'm assuming people comparing only earning a Bay Area salary to chattel slavery have reached that point already
- barelysapient 9mo ago
  You point out so many problems with our current structure that are worth addressing. But at the same time, the current system is hugely better than chattel slavery. Western citizens and workers have gained substantial rights and freedoms over the last 100 years.
  - nilamo 9mo ago
    That's great! But it doesn't mean we've finished improving.
    - barelysapient 9mo ago
      Completely agree. Personally I’m optimistic we’ll continue the trend line of improvement.
- parpfish 9mo ago
  I’m torn about this. I agree that employment is “value extraction” and people without upfront capital (or risk tolerance) are selling off their IP to other people. It’s unfortunate, but in most cases I’d struggle to even call it exploitation. So relating it slavery a bit too far and really underselling the horrors of slavery. I can quit my job or go to a new one. Tech companies aren’t running international mass-kidnapping schemes to get their headcount.
- CharlesW 9mo ago
  > Today we call it “employment.” FYI, people may react poorly to exaggerated comparisons like this since Actual Slavery still exists. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-that-still-have-slavery https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries...
  - ceejayoz 9mo ago
    Actual slavery is even legal right here in the US. Per the 13th: > Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
    - fsckboy 9mo ago
      you picked the wrong phrase, that's involuntary servitude, not slavery.
      - ceejayoz 9mo ago
        No. If you wanted that, you’d do this: “Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted…” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_Stat... “Over the years, the courts have held inmates may be forced to work and are not protected by the constitution against involuntary servitude. They have also consistently held that inmates have no constitutional right to compensation and that inmates are paid by the "grace of the state."”
- orochimaaru 9mo ago
  Slaves did not get paid and were involuntarily captured, transported, sold, raped, molested, etc. No employer is doing that to you. You have it pretty good compared to slaves. No one chooses to be a slave. You chose to be in tech. You can choose to be a farmer if the current state of things doesn't work for you. A slave would never have that luxury.
- csallen 9mo ago
  > The question is whether we are comfortable with an economic model where creative and technical labour consistently produces outsized returns captured by capital, not by the people who actually built the thing. You have two mistakes in your thinking. 1. You assume that people are not comfortable with this economic model, when in fact millions of people are making the choice to be on the labor side of this model on a daily basis, who could actively afford to be on the ownership side. 2. You mistakenly believe that "the thing" that produces returns is the product/service/offering when in reality it's the entire business. Let's start with #2. Producing and capturing value is about more than just building the offering, i.e. coding something. Millions of people have coded something "valuable" and made $0, because building something is not enough. You have to make sure people learn about the thing, and they have to find it good enough to pay you for it, and then actually pay you for it, and you have to be able to make this happen repeatedly, a sufficient number of times and at a high enough price point to sustain and ideally grow the endeavor. This goes far behind simply building a product. It requires building a business. And let me tell you, my friend, software engineers at FAANG companies are only building the software, not the business. The people building the business are the ones making the biggest earnings. Creators in every industry do not like to hear this. Take the music industry, for example. Everyone who can sing or create music hates the "middlemen". The record labels and whatnot. The DJs. They hate the grind. Every creator wishes that simply creating was enough, and many naively believe that it is. But we live in the real world, which has these things called markets and people and psychology. Markets are competitive, and people and psychology are complex, and someone who works to build a business (an offering + market research + a marketing/sales/distribution process + a viable business model) is going to beat the pants off someone who only wants to create the offering and do nothing else. Building a business is incredibly difficult, and incredibly risky. It's more likely than not that you will lose a ton of money and a ton of time. Most people would rather not face this challenge, take this risk, or endure these losses. Most would rather learn a fraction of the skills required (e.g. just the programming part, just the design part, just the singing part, etc.), then allow someone else to do the hard work of starting the business and turning it into something from nothing. Most people would rather sell their time and services for a comfy salary instead of trying to become an owner. Which is why there are large numbers of well-paid white collar workers who make this choice every day, rather than quitting to start a business. This is not slavery, it's people being content with what they have and trading risk for security. (God I hate writing any sort of sentence "it's not X it's Y" because AI has ruined this phrasing.)
- Jun8 9mo ago
  Everyone’s entitled to their opinions and more than a few people have written similar ideas. However, I find this chain of thought both offensive to what being a slave meant and ignorant. If you think being a coder is the modern equivalent to being enslaved either you’ve never worked as an entry level employer in the service industry or else have forgotten your experience.
stockresearcher 9mo ago
> Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson planted pecans at their plantations At the time of Washington and Jefferson, they were known in English as Illinois nuts. And, living in Illinois, a few years ago I bought a selection of 2-3 year old seedlings of Illinois-native trees from the state department of natural resources to plant on my property. Pecan seedlings were included... When people say that pecan trees grow slowly, they are understating reality. Mine are growing at maybe an inch a year. I get one or two small leaves at the top. No branches yet. I planted a plum tree near one at the exact same time and it has doubled in height.
- infinitewars 9mo ago
  The natural range of the Pecan is somewhat limited, so unless you're in southern Illinois or by the river, it might not be its preferred habitat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecan#/media/File:Carya_illinoinensis_range_map_1.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecan#/media/File:Carya_illino... They're actually considered a fast growing tree when in the right place--1 to 2 ft per year at first.
  - stockresearcher 9mo ago
    I had never heard about it being called a fast-growing tree :) I am outside the natural range, but close to a [different] river and feel that with climate change it should be fairly ok. But it appears I am wrong!
    - infinitewars 9mo ago
      If your river often freezes over (e.g. Rock), you're not in the right place. The Mississippi River almost never does where the Pecans grow. "The tree can only survive in areas with warm winter nights, which severely restricts its distribution. To ensure your pecan tree grows at the expected rate (1-3 feet per year for non-bearing and 5-12 inches for existing bearing trees) and produces nuts, the two most critical parts of pecan tree care are consistent watering and fertilizing."
kleton 9mo ago
Article doesn't say the "trick" - it was a technique now known as inlay grafting.
Arainach 9mo ago
Is this article missing opening context? First line: >Pecan nuts were already a dietary staple for Native Americans in various parts of what is now the United States before Antoine’s innovation established the basis for a commercial pecan industry Who is "Antoine"? Is it a first name? A last name? It doesn't ever seem to say.
- wswope 9mo ago
  The missing context is the title.
- ceejayoz 9mo ago
  https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-... A lot of slaves had no last name, or only their owners’.
  - mathgeek 9mo ago
    Not to sound pedantic (I believe this is a very important distinction), but as far as I'm aware most slaves were not _given_ last names by their slavers. They often had (if taken into slavery) or were given (if born in slavery) their own names within their own cultures.
    - Pay08 9mo ago
      I'm curious, do native African cultures often have multiple names?
      - awesome_dude 9mo ago
        The number of different cultures in Africa, each with its own set of traditions and ceremonies makes that a very difficult question to answer in a generalised way.
        Pay08 9mo ago
lostlogin 9mo ago
‘working by candlelight would have provided Antoine a focused, well-lit environment for the delicate dissection of two seedlings’ I think the author needs to try using a candle for light.
- dylan604 9mo ago
  Candlelight doesn't mean a single solitary candle. As an example, here's the famous scene Kubrik's Barry Lyndon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQE73GDo4So https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQE73GDo4So
  - _diyar 9mo ago
    Yet this is an infamously dimly-lit scene.
    - artimaeis 9mo ago
      For a camera exposing onto Kodak 5254, probably the fastest available in 1975, blazing ISO 100 film stock. Yeah it’s dim for that. To your eyes as I understand it’s pretty well lit.
      - defrost 9mo ago
        The photo nerd hacking tweak of note here was the pushing of the stock to 200 and using uniquely crafted NASA lenses built to photograph the dark side of the moon with not seen before aparture. Arguably a youtube rending of a compressed digital source viewed on a computer screen falls short of a 1970s full cinema via film live viweing. Technically it was pushing well past the envelope for the day: https://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-famous-f0-7-lenses/ https://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-fa...
    - eszed 9mo ago
      Yeah, I don't quite agree with that, or think of it as any kind of a criticism. The candles are placed in such a way that the faces of the important characters are easily visible, while the spectators fade into the background. This is fine! You're not meant to see their reactions, only hear them. The lighting functions like stage lighting, or (more likely Kubrick's inspiration) chiaroscuro, focusing viewers' attention where it's meant to be. As an aside: I've always suspected that the next scene (outside the house, at the end of this clip) is not naturally lit, though I've never seen anyone write anything about it. Even there, though, the lighting is used dramatically: as she turns, her face goes into shadow, leaving her reaction to his approach unseen, and therefore ambiguous. Sorry / not-sorry , you were making a quick point, which I've totally hijacked to geek out about one of my favorite films of all time. Carry on.
maximalthinker 9mo ago
[dead]
gsf_emergency_6 9mo ago
Similar, but also different, to the story of the guy who discovered how to scale vanilla pollination. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_Albius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_Albius
burnt-resistor 9mo ago
Bittersweet sad-interesting. Grandparents had 6 paper shell "Pawnee" trees producing 50 lbs. / 22 kg of nuts per year with no special maintenance. USDA hardiness zone 8A and humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa). They fell on their own once a year.

72 points by PaulHoule 9mo ago

> If composed of two parts, there is often a scion—the upper or shoot portion of a plant—which is joined with a separate rootstock to produce, if successful, a healthy grafted plant. And like that, I finally figured out why Toyota named their offshoot brand Scion.

varispeed 9mo ago

[flagged]

jstanley 9mo ago
If you think it's so easy, you can quit and start your own company and find out.
- varispeed 9mo ago
  “If you are homeless, just buy a house.”
  - notahacker 9mo ago
    Unlike buying a house, writing software can be done without up front investment in one's spare time Turns out the value of it actually isn't just the code though...
    - ceejayoz 9mo ago
      > without up front investment If you don’t count a computer and the time it takes to learn.
      - notahacker 9mo ago
        I'm assuming people comparing only earning a Bay Area salary to chattel slavery have reached that point already
barelysapient 9mo ago
You point out so many problems with our current structure that are worth addressing. But at the same time, the current system is hugely better than chattel slavery. Western citizens and workers have gained substantial rights and freedoms over the last 100 years.
- nilamo 9mo ago
  That's great! But it doesn't mean we've finished improving.
  - barelysapient 9mo ago
    Completely agree. Personally I’m optimistic we’ll continue the trend line of improvement.
parpfish 9mo ago
I’m torn about this. I agree that employment is “value extraction” and people without upfront capital (or risk tolerance) are selling off their IP to other people. It’s unfortunate, but in most cases I’d struggle to even call it exploitation. So relating it slavery a bit too far and really underselling the horrors of slavery. I can quit my job or go to a new one. Tech companies aren’t running international mass-kidnapping schemes to get their headcount.
CharlesW 9mo ago
> Today we call it “employment.” FYI, people may react poorly to exaggerated comparisons like this since Actual Slavery still exists. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-that-still-have-slavery https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries...
- ceejayoz 9mo ago
  Actual slavery is even legal right here in the US. Per the 13th: > Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
  - fsckboy 9mo ago
    you picked the wrong phrase, that's involuntary servitude, not slavery.
    - ceejayoz 9mo ago
      No. If you wanted that, you’d do this: “Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted…” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_Stat... “Over the years, the courts have held inmates may be forced to work and are not protected by the constitution against involuntary servitude. They have also consistently held that inmates have no constitutional right to compensation and that inmates are paid by the "grace of the state."”
orochimaaru 9mo ago
Slaves did not get paid and were involuntarily captured, transported, sold, raped, molested, etc. No employer is doing that to you. You have it pretty good compared to slaves. No one chooses to be a slave. You chose to be in tech. You can choose to be a farmer if the current state of things doesn't work for you. A slave would never have that luxury.
csallen 9mo ago
> The question is whether we are comfortable with an economic model where creative and technical labour consistently produces outsized returns captured by capital, not by the people who actually built the thing. You have two mistakes in your thinking. 1. You assume that people are not comfortable with this economic model, when in fact millions of people are making the choice to be on the labor side of this model on a daily basis, who could actively afford to be on the ownership side. 2. You mistakenly believe that "the thing" that produces returns is the product/service/offering when in reality it's the entire business. Let's start with #2. Producing and capturing value is about more than just building the offering, i.e. coding something. Millions of people have coded something "valuable" and made $0, because building something is not enough. You have to make sure people learn about the thing, and they have to find it good enough to pay you for it, and then actually pay you for it, and you have to be able to make this happen repeatedly, a sufficient number of times and at a high enough price point to sustain and ideally grow the endeavor. This goes far behind simply building a product. It requires building a business. And let me tell you, my friend, software engineers at FAANG companies are only building the software, not the business. The people building the business are the ones making the biggest earnings. Creators in every industry do not like to hear this. Take the music industry, for example. Everyone who can sing or create music hates the "middlemen". The record labels and whatnot. The DJs. They hate the grind. Every creator wishes that simply creating was enough, and many naively believe that it is. But we live in the real world, which has these things called markets and people and psychology. Markets are competitive, and people and psychology are complex, and someone who works to build a business (an offering + market research + a marketing/sales/distribution process + a viable business model) is going to beat the pants off someone who only wants to create the offering and do nothing else. Building a business is incredibly difficult, and incredibly risky. It's more likely than not that you will lose a ton of money and a ton of time. Most people would rather not face this challenge, take this risk, or endure these losses. Most would rather learn a fraction of the skills required (e.g. just the programming part, just the design part, just the singing part, etc.), then allow someone else to do the hard work of starting the business and turning it into something from nothing. Most people would rather sell their time and services for a comfy salary instead of trying to become an owner. Which is why there are large numbers of well-paid white collar workers who make this choice every day, rather than quitting to start a business. This is not slavery, it's people being content with what they have and trading risk for security. (God I hate writing any sort of sentence "it's not X it's Y" because AI has ruined this phrasing.)
Jun8 9mo ago
Everyone’s entitled to their opinions and more than a few people have written similar ideas. However, I find this chain of thought both offensive to what being a slave meant and ignorant. If you think being a coder is the modern equivalent to being enslaved either you’ve never worked as an entry level employer in the service industry or else have forgotten your experience.

stockresearcher 9mo ago

> Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson planted pecans at their plantations At the time of Washington and Jefferson, they were known in English as Illinois nuts. And, living in Illinois, a few years ago I bought a selection of 2-3 year old seedlings of Illinois-native trees from the state department of natural resources to plant on my property. Pecan seedlings were included... When people say that pecan trees grow slowly, they are understating reality. Mine are growing at maybe an inch a year. I get one or two small leaves at the top. No branches yet. I planted a plum tree near one at the exact same time and it has doubled in height.

infinitewars 9mo ago
The natural range of the Pecan is somewhat limited, so unless you're in southern Illinois or by the river, it might not be its preferred habitat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecan#/media/File:Carya_illinoinensis_range_map_1.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecan#/media/File:Carya_illino... They're actually considered a fast growing tree when in the right place--1 to 2 ft per year at first.
- stockresearcher 9mo ago
  I had never heard about it being called a fast-growing tree :) I am outside the natural range, but close to a [different] river and feel that with climate change it should be fairly ok. But it appears I am wrong!
  - infinitewars 9mo ago
    If your river often freezes over (e.g. Rock), you're not in the right place. The Mississippi River almost never does where the Pecans grow. "The tree can only survive in areas with warm winter nights, which severely restricts its distribution. To ensure your pecan tree grows at the expected rate (1-3 feet per year for non-bearing and 5-12 inches for existing bearing trees) and produces nuts, the two most critical parts of pecan tree care are consistent watering and fertilizing."

kleton 9mo ago

Article doesn't say the "trick" - it was a technique now known as inlay grafting.

Arainach 9mo ago

Is this article missing opening context? First line: >Pecan nuts were already a dietary staple for Native Americans in various parts of what is now the United States before Antoine’s innovation established the basis for a commercial pecan industry Who is "Antoine"? Is it a first name? A last name? It doesn't ever seem to say.

wswope 9mo ago
The missing context is the title.
ceejayoz 9mo ago
https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-... A lot of slaves had no last name, or only their owners’.
- mathgeek 9mo ago
  Not to sound pedantic (I believe this is a very important distinction), but as far as I'm aware most slaves were not _given_ last names by their slavers. They often had (if taken into slavery) or were given (if born in slavery) their own names within their own cultures.
  - Pay08 9mo ago
    I'm curious, do native African cultures often have multiple names?
    - awesome_dude 9mo ago
      The number of different cultures in Africa, each with its own set of traditions and ceremonies makes that a very difficult question to answer in a generalised way.
      - Pay08 9mo ago

lostlogin 9mo ago

‘working by candlelight would have provided Antoine a focused, well-lit environment for the delicate dissection of two seedlings’ I think the author needs to try using a candle for light.

dylan604 9mo ago
Candlelight doesn't mean a single solitary candle. As an example, here's the famous scene Kubrik's Barry Lyndon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQE73GDo4So https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQE73GDo4So
- _diyar 9mo ago
  Yet this is an infamously dimly-lit scene.
  - artimaeis 9mo ago
    For a camera exposing onto Kodak 5254, probably the fastest available in 1975, blazing ISO 100 film stock. Yeah it’s dim for that. To your eyes as I understand it’s pretty well lit.
    - defrost 9mo ago
      The photo nerd hacking tweak of note here was the pushing of the stock to 200 and using uniquely crafted NASA lenses built to photograph the dark side of the moon with not seen before aparture. Arguably a youtube rending of a compressed digital source viewed on a computer screen falls short of a 1970s full cinema via film live viweing. Technically it was pushing well past the envelope for the day: https://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-famous-f0-7-lenses/ https://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-fa...
  - eszed 9mo ago
    Yeah, I don't quite agree with that, or think of it as any kind of a criticism. The candles are placed in such a way that the faces of the important characters are easily visible, while the spectators fade into the background. This is fine! You're not meant to see their reactions, only hear them. The lighting functions like stage lighting, or (more likely Kubrick's inspiration) chiaroscuro, focusing viewers' attention where it's meant to be. As an aside: I've always suspected that the next scene (outside the house, at the end of this clip) is not naturally lit, though I've never seen anyone write anything about it. Even there, though, the lighting is used dramatically: as she turns, her face goes into shadow, leaving her reaction to his approach unseen, and therefore ambiguous. Sorry / not-sorry , you were making a quick point, which I've totally hijacked to geek out about one of my favorite films of all time. Carry on.

maximalthinker 9mo ago

[dead]

gsf_emergency_6 9mo ago

Similar, but also different, to the story of the guy who discovered how to scale vanilla pollination. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_Albius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_Albius

burnt-resistor 9mo ago

Bittersweet sad-interesting. Grandparents had 6 paper shell "Pawnee" trees producing 50 lbs. / 22 kg of nuts per year with no special maintenance. USDA hardiness zone 8A and humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa). They fell on their own once a year.