The Bulletin. 17 



on them. But take one of those vines from the woods and allow it to 

 run at will over a trellis in the open, and it will return thanks to you 

 with bushels of its luscious fruits. None of nature's children, the 

 pecan tree included, is ungrateful for care bestowed upon it. 



PECAN TREES IN COTTON FIELDS. 



In my experience, one of the best places for planting a pecan orchard 

 is in a cotton field. Pecan trees are very deep-rooted, feed far below 

 the surface, and do not encroach much on the cotton land until they 

 are big enough to give a profit for its use. Pecan tr(>es should not be 

 set less than 50 feet apart ; 60 feet is better. In these wide middles 

 cotton and other crops can be successfully cultivated for years until 

 the trees require all the land. In this way a planter need not be out 

 of the use of his land, but can at the same time be gradually changing 

 an annual crop that adds no permanent increment to the value of his 

 soil to a perennial one that makes his land more valuable every year 

 it grows upon it. Of course, I would not advise cotton planters to 

 put all their lands in pecan trees, but I do believe that every cotton 

 plantation would be enhanced in value if it had on it a larger or 

 smaller pecan orchard, if only of a few trees. A special advantage 

 of the cotton field for pecan planting is that the trees are practically 

 assured of cultivation. I have never seen a pecan orchard that was 

 a success unless it was cultivated, at least while the trees were young. 

 It is for this reason that I prefer the terra "pecan orchard" to "pecan 

 2;i'ove," for the latter term has about it more of the idea of a oreen 

 unbroken turf, and, from my experience, I am very sure that this is 

 not the condition conducive to large yields of nuts. Professor Van 

 Deman says "Nature plants groves, but man plants orchards." 



Where maintenance crops are grown in a pecan orchard, judgment 

 should be exercised in not allowing the rows to encroach too closely on 

 the trees, thus robbing them of plant food and moisture. If this is 

 done, valuable time will be lost in getting the trees into bearing. 

 Maintenance or cover crops should not be allowed to grow nearer than 

 6 feet to the tree row, and of course no crop of any kind should be 

 planted in the tree row itself. 



A good farmer who recently, at my solicitation, set out a pecnn 

 orchard asked me one day to look at his trees, because they did not 

 seem to be doing well. When I drove with him to his place T had 

 difficulty in finding his orchard, for the place on which he had planted 

 it was now a solid field of tall, waving corn, which looked as if it 

 would produce 100 bushels to the acre. I could not at first see a 

 single pecan tree, but after locating the corn row in which the trees 

 were set I was able to find a number of dead ones and some very 

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