November 27, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



569 



size of pepper corns, resembling, like its flowers, the Aralia 

 and Ivy. Like Magnolia hypoleuca and ^■Esciiliis turbinata, it 

 is scattered in the high mountain forests of Japan from Kiu- 

 shiu to Yeio, but is most numerous in the north. In Yezo, 

 trunks of from nine to twelve feet circumference and ninety feet 

 height may be seen. I often found them in Hondo quite as 

 high, but generally not so thick. In high forests the trunks 

 are often somewhat bent, and do not branch until they are 

 sixty feet high. Their dark, thick, rugged bark makes them 

 as noticeable as their beautiful foliage. The white wood shades 

 often into brown, and is moderately light, rough fibred and 

 more of less porous. Cross cut, it shows year-rings, but no 

 pith-rays. The pores are of two kinds: one sort microscopic 

 and scattered about in the thick summer-wood ; the other ap- 

 parent to the naked eye, and denoting the spring girdles. 

 According to Bohmer, the Ainos make their canoes out of the 

 large trunks from eighteen to twenty-seven feet long. 



Acanthopanax ricinifolia is sometimes found in gardens 

 under the name oi Aralia Maximowiczii. C. S. S. 



Fig. 146. — Yucca elata.— See patje 568. 



Cultural Department. 



The Pecan Tree. 



{Hickoria Pecan.) 



A LTHOUGH this tree demands attention chiefly for its nuts, 

 -^"^ which form one of the valuable products of the Atlantic 

 forest-region throughout all its southwestern section, it also 

 has merits as a timber-tree. I venture to reply to many in- 

 quiries from all parts of the. country concerning the character 

 of this tree, the method of cultivating it, and the profit to be 

 derived from it, the more readily because I iiave some new 



experience to report since- 1 read a paper on these subjects 

 before tlie Mississippi Valley Agricultural Society in 1883. For 

 the latest information in regard to tiie propagation of the 

 Pecan, I am indebted to Mr. J. J. Delcliamps, of Mobile, an 

 energetic cultivator of this tree, who has given it his attention 

 during nearly forty years. 



Distribution. — The Pecan is found growing from northern 

 Louisiana and Mississippi through the alluvial lands of the 

 Mississippi River and its larger tributaries, as far north as 

 southern Indiana, southwestern Kentucky, and along the 

 Missouri to eastern Kansas, as well .as in the Indian Territory, 

 Arkansas, Texas and the adjoining regions of northern Mexico. 



Soil and Site. — Naturally, this tree is confined to the rich, 

 cool and damp soil of the river-bottom lands, with a sub-soil 

 which offers to its long tap-root a constant supply of moisture. 

 Tills water supply and abundant plant food are essential to 

 the perfect growth of the tree and the production of nius of 

 the best quality. The Pecan sliuns a dry, silicious soil, and 

 the attempts to raise it on the sandy rolling Pine lands have 

 resulted in disappointment, the highly porous soil rendering 

 the application of fertilizers of little benefit to the tree. It 

 fails, also, on lands with a rocky subsoil, which impedes the 

 growth of its tap-root. 



Rate of Growth. — The Pecan grows rapidly, reaching a 

 height of from twenty to twenty-five feet within ten years. It 

 begins to bloom and produce a few nuts in its seventh or 

 eighth year. Trees three years old, when taken from the 

 nursery in 1873, began to bear in my garden six years later, 

 and the crop of less than half a bushel to the tree in 1883 has 

 increased steadily until this year, when it was two and a half 

 bushels of nuts of a quality that would command fifteen cents a 

 pound. Another tree in my immediate neighborhood, from 

 a nut planted in 1867 and left vaidisturbed, yields at present 

 from three and a ha^: to four bushels of nuts of a higher 

 grade, commanding a price of twenty cents a pound. This 

 tree is fully seventy-five feet high, with a girth of about sixty- 

 six inches. I lately had the opportunity to measure several 

 trees which have never been transplanted, but stand where 

 the nuts were planted in 1866, in the sandy loam of the coast 

 plain of Mobile, where the subsoil is a damp clay. By actual 

 measurement they were found from seventy to se^-enty-five 

 feet high, with a circumference of fully five feet l)reast high, and 

 a crown varying from sixty to sixty-six feet in greatest diam- 

 eter, yielding crops -of good quality and quantity and coming 

 true from seed. According to Mr. Delchamps, trees, undis- 

 turbed in their growth by transplanting, bloom several vears 

 earlier and produce remunerative crops of nuts correspond- 

 ingly sooner than seedlings brought from the nurserv ; 

 while it is not until the tenth year that the latter can lae de- 

 pended upon under the best conditions of soil and methods of 

 cultivation to produce fruit. The crops increase every season 

 for a long series of years, extending most probably over more 

 than a century. 



Cultivation. ^The practice generally adopted is to plant 

 the nuts early in the fall in drills two or two and a half feet 

 apart in a generous, loamy soil, enriched, if necessary, by well 

 rotted compost, and to keep the seedlings for the following two 

 or three years under good cultivation. Having by the end of 

 that time reached a height of from four to five feet, the 

 young trees are carefully taken up, and, without delay, trans- 

 ferred to their permanent position. Care is taken not to expose 

 the long tap-root, which is provided with only a few lateral root- 

 lets, to the dry air. The fall of the year, after the first frosts, 

 is considered the best time for transplanting. In the poorer 

 and lighter soils of the coast of the lower Atlantic and Gulf 

 states the soil should be from the outset enriched \is a liberal 

 application of well-rotted stable manure, repeated from year to 

 year, particularly after the tree begins to yield large crops. 

 To insure the best development of the tree and the produc- 

 tion of nuts of good qualit_\on the lands of the class described, 

 annual mulching and manuring are absolute necessities. A 

 mixture of stable manure and pm-e bone meal is the best com- 

 post. The Pecan is a strong feeder. It soon exhausts the 

 plant-food in a naturally poor soil and shows the want of more 

 by an immediate failure to produce perfect seeds. In the 

 deep, rich soils of the Mississippi silt, manuring can be dis- 

 pensed with for a long period. In such localities, imder the 

 sunny skies of lower latitudes, nutsof the finestquality are pro- 

 duced almost without faihu'e every year, and by trees far lie- 

 yond the first half century of their existence, provided the land 

 IS above the line of protracted overflows. 



The Tap Roots. — The theory that earlier fruiting is secured 

 by shortening the tap-roots leads many nurserymen to cut oft' 

 these roots of the young seedlings with a sharp spade. Mr. 

 Delchamps asserts that in no instance within his knowledge 



