Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2001 (i.e. 2002). / Includes bibliographical references.

The Agricultural Marketing Agreements Act of 1937 allows groups of specialty crop producers to form marketing orders to affect various aspects of the market in which they sell. Two of the three major tree nuts--almonds and walnuts--operate under marketing orders. This study examined the question of whether or not the third major tree nut industry--pecans--should follow suit. An econometric model of the demand side of the tree nut industries was developed and used in simulations to see how prices and total revenues in the pecan industry would change under different assumptions as to the existence, or form, of a marketing order. The results showed that over the simulation period--1988 to 1992--the industry would benefit from the formation of a marketing order that limited quantities reaching the primary market, and used the surplus for developing new markets.

The growth of the pecan industry in San Saba offers a microcosm into the evolution of the industry as a whole. Individual ingenuity in agriculture, business, and technology carved a path for success for the native nut in San Saba. Thanks in part to the efforts by founding families of the area and their descendants, the pecan has become a widely-used ingredient in holiday sweets of the American South and a symbol of Texas identity. Yet, the industry's development and the lives of the people who have cultivated it are stories that have remained largely untold. Through oral histories with family pecan growers, descendants of migrant farm laborers, and others working in the industry as well as primary sources such as those from early pecan sales catalogs, United States Department of Agriculture and other government documents, this project will trace the history of the pecan in San Saba – including how it has shaped the natural landscape and the individual and collective identities of San Saba and its residents.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2010. / Title from title page screen (viewed on July 20, 2010). Thesis advisor: Gary McCracken. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.