Planting and Care of the Pecan Orcluird 117 



with cotton, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, velvet beans, soy- 

 beans, peanuts, and any vegetables. 



Two crops can be grown in the orchard in one season by 

 first planting an early maturing sort, such as Irish potatoes, 

 or any of the early vegetables that can be harvested by May 

 20 to the 10th of June, and then followed with some late 

 maturing kind, such as sweet potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, 

 egg-plant, peppers, or, in some cases, cotton. (See Plates V, 

 VI.) Irish potatoes grown in a young pecan orchard on the 

 grounds of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas 

 were harvested May 20, and the land immediately set to sweet 

 potatoes, a large crop being grown the same season. As a 

 result of the constant stirring of soil and the unused fertilizer, 

 the young trees make excellent growth under this plan. The 

 orchard was planted in 1909. The land was cropped every 

 year until 1919, the tenth year after planting. Since then 

 clean cultivation has been given the orchard during the grow- 

 ing season or summer months, followed by a cover-crop 

 planted in the early fall and turned under as growth started 

 the next spring. 



Orchards can be given clean cultivation from the first; 

 that is, as soon as the young trees are planted. However, this 

 is costly when it has to be kept up eight to twelve years before 

 the trees begin to produce in paying quantities. 



Corporations and large individual pecan-growers often do 

 not find it feasible to give intense cultivation to the entire 

 areas of extensive orchards while bringing the trees into bear- 

 ing. Such growers naturally look for some system by which 

 they can use improved machinery to accomplish the maximum 

 amount of work A\4th a minimum of labor, and at the same 

 time grow some crop that will be remunerative without doing 



