93 



there, a place which a previous occupant had used as a dump for tin 

 cans, old bottles, ashes, etc. Much of this was cleaned out and a large 

 hole was the result. Digging a cold storage cellar under a portion of 

 the house where there was no cellar gave me many loads of fine build- 

 ing sand, which was used to fill up the old hole. When the black 

 walnut row was set out it was found that one tree would come right in 

 the middle of the old hole. The tree was set there and notation made 

 to see that it got a double portion of manure when the other trees were 

 manured. This tree has grown as well as any of the row, and the soil 

 around it has lost the sandy appearance it had for three or four years. 



Perhaps the experience of the southern pecan planters may also be 

 helpful in this connection. The pecan apparently is normally a bottom 

 land tree and is pretty generally found in the bottom lands of the Mis- 

 sissippi River and its tributaries where the soils .-ire alluvial, of great 

 depth, and very rich. It has been planted on many kinds of soil and, 

 barring such cases as being jilanted where there is ledge or hard pan 

 near the surface, etc. it does pretty well as long as the fertility of the 

 soil is maintained. 



With possibly one exception, nut trees do not appeir particular as 

 to whether the soil be acid or alkaline. The soil at Baldwin is slightly 

 acid, that at Lancaster, Pa., is limestone soil and probably alkaline, but 

 with the exception of the English walnut nuts seem to do about as well 

 at one place as the other. There is a marked difference in the case of 

 the English walnut as to behavior, the trees doing much better at Lan- 

 caster. The soil at Lockport, N. Y., where the English walnut does so 

 well is limestone also. One English walnut tree at Baldwin which is 

 growing near where there was a large ash pile at one time is growing- 

 much better than the others. The English walnut trees at Baldwin 

 are now receiving applications of lime to see if this will make them do 

 nearly as they should. 



There is one matter which perhaps is not exactly soil requirement 

 but which is of great importance, and that is soil condition. I do not 

 like to dig holes in sod land and plant nut trees. I much prefer to 

 plow the land, fertilize it, and raise a crop or two that requires clean 

 cultivation, such as corn, and then plant the nut trees. Observations 

 have lead me to believe that nut trees planted in tilled ground are pretty 

 apt to make much better growth than those in sod land even when those 

 in tilled ground- are planted a year or two later. 



