78 Pecan-Growing 



they should pay more than the expenses of cultivation. If 

 a prospective grower has his nursery stock on hand and is 

 willing to cope with unfavorable soil conditions, he may plant 

 his trees the first year after clearing. Strips of land where 

 the trees are to be set should be well broken as long in advance 

 as possible. Strict precautions should be taken to leave no 

 pieces of decaying roots and limbs in the holes where the 

 young tree is to be set or close around it to attract termites. 

 The strips of land between the rows can be plowed later. The 

 sprouts coming up from the forest tree stumps should be cut 

 off as they appear. This is a rather crude method of starting 

 a pecan orchard and the grower should be in a position to 

 give the trees very close attention for the first two or three 

 years. 



SOIL TYPES SUITABLE FOR PECANS 



In its native range the pecan flourishes on the alluvial soils 

 of the Mississippi Valley and other western streams. It grows 

 well also on the upland sandy loam soils of the more eastern 

 states adapted to the growth of corn, oats, and cotton. The 

 pecan is influenced more by the fertility, humus, and mois- 

 ture-content of the soil than by any particular type. 



The Norfolk, Orangeburg, Tifton, and Greenville are among 

 the important soil series in the southern United States 

 and eastern Texas and these have been utilized extensively 

 for pecan-growing. 



The Norfolk soils are characterized by the light grayish- 

 yellow color of the surface, and by the yellow color and friable 

 structure of the subsoils. They occupy nearly level or rolling 

 uplands throughout the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains and 

 have been derived mainly from Piedmont- Appalachian mate- 



