io6 A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



With a sharp budding knife make two cuts completely around the stock, 

 about one inch apart; cut only through the bark; cut from the top circle to the 

 lower one a straight cut down; now slip off from the stock this piece of bark 

 which is to be used as a pattern; that is, place it around the scion (or piece of 

 branch on which are the buds. you wish to use), covering a well developed eye; 

 make the same cut as before on the scion, throw the first piece of bark away, 

 fit the last piece from the scion to its place on the stock, wrap firmly (leaving 

 the eye uncovered) with wax cotton, bass, or like soft material. To have the 

 buds fit well the scion should be as large or larger than the stock. If the oper- 

 ation is well done, the buds will start in about fifteen days. When the buds 

 have taken well take off the ties and cut back the stock to within six inches of 

 the bud. When they have grown out a foot or more, cut back again to within 

 a half inch of the bud. Thereafter allow nothing but the bud to grow. Pecan 

 trees may be grafted in the ordinary way, but I have never succeeded in bud- 

 ding them by the common method. 



Budding or grafting will cause the trees to come into bearing much earlier 

 than from seed, to produce more regular and more abundant crops, besides per- 

 petuating the improved kinds, which is the most important, as they do not 

 always come true from seed. 



Pecan seed should be transplanted soon after the leaves fall; it must be 

 done before they start growing in t*he Spring. As they grow to be large trees, 

 they must be planted from fifty to seventy feet apart, though on sandy poor 

 land they may be planted closer. Keep down the weeds from around the young 

 trees for the first year or two; afterwards they will take care of themselves. 



In looking over my letter in your " Garden Manual," it struck me that I 

 would like to say a few words more to those desirous of planting a grove of seed- 

 lings, if you think it worth while to make room for it. I wish to impress them 

 with the importance of planting only the very best and finest nuts obtainable; 

 to bear in mind the fact that the tendency of such seedlings is not toward an 

 improvement on, but towards a kind inferior to the parent tree; that some only, 

 even of the best selected nuts, reproduce their kind (it is said about sixty per 

 cent, of the seedlings from good nuts produce good fruit); that there is no way 

 to select the best of such seedlings but by waiting until they fruit, which may 

 be eight to fifteen years. 



Now, as there are many advertisements of " Large Soft-shelled Pecans " for 

 sale for seed, I would advise all buyers to be very particular as to the source 

 from whence they get their nuts for planting, otherwise they will certainly be 

 disappointed in results, and incur an irreparable loss of years of time. 



The tendency of this tree to sport or produce varieties is amply proven by 

 the numberless kinds we now have. I have never seen two trees in a grove pro- 

 duce nuts exactly alike in size, shape and quality. Where it is possible to get 



