A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 97 



may have rendered valuable service to those of my fellow beings whom I have 

 induced to engage in Pecan culture. 



The Pecan belongs to the family of Hickory, and is found growing in its 

 wild state, (very varied as to quality and productiveness), from the gulf to the 

 lakes, and principally in the rich soil along the Wabash, Missouri, Mississippi 

 and many rivers in Texas and Arkansas, where it attains in fact its largest 

 growth, often measuring three to four feet in diameter, with a spread of top 

 sixty to seventy feet. Many years ago some nuts were planted in Maryland, 

 and now some of the finest trees in the Union may be found growing there. 

 Its habit is lower and more spreading than the Hickory, when not too much 

 surrounded by other trees; growing out alone it makes a full oval head, form- 

 ing one of the handsomest of shade trees, with foliage a rich dark green in 

 color, and under favoring conditions of very rapid growth. The nuts are borne 

 in clusters of three to as many as seven on the extremities of the new wood; 

 the staminate flowers appearing at the ends of the preceding year's growth. 



The best time, perhaps, for planting trees is in the Fall, from November i to 

 the middle of December, or as soon as they have shed their leaves in the Fall; 

 Spring planting from February i until the buds begin to swell in the Spring. 

 The nuts may be planted any time to advantage from season of ripening until 

 late in the Spring, varied by condition in latitude; the middle of March the 

 latest admissible period usually; the greater delay in time of planting, always 

 remember, the greater necessity for thorough previous soaking of the nuts in 

 water, from two to six days before putting into the ground; plant in rows about 

 ten inches apart, covering three inches deep; put fertilizers three inches under 

 the nuts; cultivate well by keeping the ground level and clean. If not desir- 

 able to plant out permanently at one year, root prune them in the row by run- 

 ning a sharp spade under and cutting the tap root eighteen inches below the 

 surface as soon in the Fall after the leaves have fallen as practicable; this will 

 tend to develop a strong growth of lateral or branch roots, and when finally 

 removed to their permanent place, either in two or three years, it can be done 

 with little if. any loss. If the nuts are planted where the tree is to stand per- 

 manently, the soil should be loosened to the depth of two feet for a space of 

 three feet in diameter and well fertilized, especially around the outside. Plant 

 three or four nuts in a place, covering about three inches deep and thinning 

 out in the Fall, leaving the strongest. Pecans have an off year; therefore, 

 when planting a grove of five hundred trees, plant one hundred trees every 

 year for five years; you will then have fruit every year. 



The most advantageous soil is best indicated by observing the conditions 

 where the Pecan or Hickory naturally thrive. Its habit is usually on made 

 alluvial lands or river bottoms, where the soil is rich, deep, friable, moist, but 

 not water-soaked, except from an occasional overflow, an event by no means 



