WHY TREES IN BOTTOMS NEVER DROWN AERATION. 55 



recently by a gentleman, who knows of three pecan trees 

 that have stood for two years on stiff land in North Texas, 

 with about one foot of water continuously covering the 

 whole surface of the ground for several hundred feet. They 

 bear fine pecans just as regularly as other trees, which fall 

 upon the water every year and are blown ashore by the wind, 

 some of which he has thus gathered and eaten. Could that 

 water be drained off and the earth examined below, it would 

 be found practically just like any ordinary well-drained land 

 after rain. Just that wet, and no more. Who doubts the 

 fate of those trees if the ground had been deeply plowed and 

 then thus flooded ? But to a limited degree for a few days 

 after excessive rains, all deeply stirred land is in a condition 

 of mud, and the fine fibrous feeding roots of all fruit trees on 

 such ground must necessairly be either scalded and drowned 

 out, more or less, in summer, or seriously injured by severe 

 cold after such excessive rains in winter. After being once 

 disturbed deeply, it requires many years to again compact the 

 soil and bring it into its original state. This can easily be 

 proved by examining, after continued rains, trees that were 

 planted in large, deep holes, though it readily shows for itself 

 if the rain be accompanied with a strong wind. In such case, 

 fruit trees six or seven years or more of age are often twisted 

 or bent half over from working in the soft earth, and some- 

 times are blown flat. It is true that this is largely due to 

 long roots when planted, but in any case such a saturated 

 mud condition of deeply stirred soil cannot but be injurious 

 to a tree, and is undoubtedly the chief cause of the develop- 

 ment of the different forms of root tumor and rot now so com- 

 mon in the South, and doubtless of yellows and black-knot, 

 as well as other root diseases at the North. Could there be 

 more convincing proof that the whole theory and practice of 

 deep plowing and large holes for trees is wrong and contrary 

 to nature, than the health, vigor and long life of forest as well 

 as all chance seedling fruit trees on firm unbroken soil? 



But, referring again to the pecan tree in water, alluded to 

 above, do trees need aeration ? While it is undoubtedly of 

 great service to all soils in their preparation for crops, once 



