THE HICKORIES PECAN. 57 



no weeds shade them and that the cotton does not come nearer than 3 feet to them. 

 A tree at 2 years old will be ten times larger where it has been carefully .plowed 

 than where it has been left to itself. All trees that I manured showed the effects 

 within a few months, and these effects are visible to-day. The first winter after 

 they are planted the rabbits will bite them off as smooth as if a knife had cut them; 

 but this biting by the rabbits does no serious harm, for in the spring they send up a 

 vigorous shoot from just below the cut, and by that fall they are too large for the 

 rabbits to bother. The trees should stand about 60 by 60 feet, or 12 trees to the acre. 

 They will give a moderate crop in fifteen years, and in twenty years they will be in 

 full bearing." 



Charles Mohr says: "Place several nuts after their harvesting, in each hill, 

 well supplied with rotted manure. The next season the strongest seedlings are 

 left standing. The hills should be at least 50 feet apart each way." The late W. 

 B. Stuart, of Ocean Springs, Miss.: "When at all practicable, plant the nut where 

 you wish the tree to stand. If grown in nursery, cut the taproot at 1 year old, so 

 as to get all the fibrous roots possible. The main thing is to make no mistakes 

 in the beginning, and to see that trees planted are produced only from large, choice 

 seed." 



Nursery method. George Tyng, of Victoria, Tex., says : " The fullest successes I 

 have seen have been attained by treating the pecan absolutely as a fruit tree from 

 seed to harvest. No more costly mistakes have I made than in trying to follow 

 nature in raising the pecan. Every agricultural success has been achieved by 

 overcoming nature's efforts to defeat it." 



Most operators favor planting nuts as fresh as possible. When these are 

 bedded in boxes of sand, sunken in the earth, and ashes are mixed with the sand 

 as directed in the introductory chapter of this treatise, the result will be very 

 generally satisfactory. Pecans that have become dry have been made to germinate 

 quite well if they are soaked in cold water for one or two days before planting, and 

 afterwards are kept in a moderately moist bed. In early spring the sprouted nuts 

 are taken from the seed bed and are carefully planted in well-prepared nursery rows. 

 The rows should be about 4 feet apart to allow convenient working with horse and 

 cultivator, with the seedlings set at 8 inches apart in the row. They will thus shade 

 each other from the hot sun. Open the furrows for the nuts only so fast as to leave 

 the earth fresh and moist for planting, and be sure to make the earth very firm 

 around each nut after it is properly set. Finish with a garden rake, carefully placing 

 a thin layer of loose earth over that which has been packed about the nuts; this will 

 prevent the crusting of the soil that will otherwise occur. In about ten days, by a 

 careful working with narrow hoes, the surface of the earth should be loosened to the 

 depth of half an inch on either side of the nursery row. For the rest of the season 

 cultivate well, keeping the ground level and clean. With the pecan, as with most 

 other nuts, some propagators follow the practice of transplanting the trees at the end 

 of the season for the first two or three years. Their theory is that trees come into 

 bearing sooner if they are removed once or twice before the final planting. They can 

 show beyond question an increase of surface roots, and they claim also to modify the 

 rampant growth of the top. At each removal care is exercised to save 10 to 12 inches 

 of the main taproot and all the laterals. Where roots are severed the cuts should be 

 smooth and without ragged edges. The same things may perhaps be more cheaply 

 accomplished by the root pruning referred to on page 11. 



Mr. Tyug says: "Much stress has been laid upon th? taproot in transplanting 

 young pecan trees, and to avoid the injury to that precious root, experts have recom- 

 mended planting the seeds in places where the trees are to permanently stand. I swal- 

 lowed that rank nonsense, with a lot more of pecan lore like it. All nut seedlings make, 

 the first year, a taproot three to five or six times as long as their sprout. I have 

 seen thousands of nut trees grubbed out of canal and railroad excavations or uprooted 



