IG The Bulletin. 



the other orchards, put in as "fillers." The land is inclined to be 

 sour. It is rather level, there being but 2 feet difference in elevation 

 on different parts of it. This slight variation in elevation seems to 

 have accounted in a remarkable manner for the irregularity of the 

 trees. Where the land was highest and driest there, in every case, 

 was the best growth of pecan trees. On the lowest parts, which were 

 found to be quite sour, every one of the pecan trees died, as did also 

 the peach trees. The cover crop of cowpeas between the trees also 

 did badly. This was undoubtedly sour land, as evidenced by all the 

 crops which were placed on it. The pecan trees, although supposedly 

 semi-aquatics, were not a whit more resistant to these conditions, but 

 died out like the peach trees and annual crops. These sour spots were 

 limed, deeply plowed, and were thoroughly cleared the second winter 

 and again set to pecan trees. In spite of the lime and additional 

 tillage, most of the reset trees perished the second season. This was 

 still more convincing evidence that pecan trees are not at home on 

 wet, sour soils. As the pecan trees on the higher and drier por- 

 tions of the orchard had made a very fine growth, it was decided to 

 thoroughly underdrain all the lower, sour parts, so as to get the 

 whole tract of land into a solid block of pecan trees. The ground 

 was surveyed by an engineer and a complete system of tile drains 

 put in on the sour parts with laterals 40 feet apart. This system 

 began at once to correct the unfavorable drainage conditions. New 

 pecan trees were planted and are now growing satisfactorily on the 

 same land where previously every tree had died. All my experi- 

 ments and observations go to show that the pecan tree requires well- 

 drained land. I doubt very much if pecan trees can be made to 

 grow successfully on any land that will not produce good cotton or 

 corn. On the other hand, I think it can be safely said that land 

 that will produce corn and cotton will grow pecans. 



The pecan tree is not now a wild, uncivilized tree, as some people 

 seem to think, that can ''rough it" in the wild, but a domesticated 

 plant that uses and needs the same kind of plant food as that on 

 which other domesticated and cultivated crops thrive and produce. 

 It is true that the pecan tree is found in its native forests as a wild 

 tree, fighting its battle for light and air with the other wild trees of 

 the forest. It is not, however, under such conditions that it pro- 

 duces its bounteous crops of delicious nuts. It is only when given 

 space and food, as an orchard tree that it finds its hard struggle for 

 existence over and that it is able to give a return for such protection. 

 The Rotundi folia grape is well known to be one of the heaviest fruit 

 producers in the whole range of horticultural plants. The woods in 

 the southern coastal section of Eastern United States from Virginia to 

 Texas are just a tangle of these vines; yet how seldom one sees fruit 



