118 Pecan-Growing 



serious harm to the growing trees. Some have selected oats 

 and cowpeas for this purpose. The oats are seeded in the fall 

 when the land of the entire orchard is broken. A strip about 

 ten feet wide, depending on size of trees, is left along the 

 rows to be cultivated the following spring and summer. When 

 the oats are harvested early the next summer the land is 

 thoroughly harrowed once or twice with a disc harrow, drawn 

 by mules or a tractor, and seeded to cowpeas. The vines 

 are cut for hay in the fall and the land again prepared for 

 planting oats as in the previous autumn. In following 

 this practice, much soil-moisture and plant-food is saved 

 by cutting the oats for hay just before they mature. The 

 growers realize that taking two crops off the land each 

 year is rather hard on the pecan trees and they balance 

 it to some extent by using heavier applications of ferti- 

 lizers. 



Cover-crops, in addition to their many other beneficial 

 effect on the soil,' aid materially in preventing washing and 

 the loss of plant-food by leaching. Loose uncovered soil pres- 

 ent in the early fall in a pecan orchard w^hich has received 

 clean cultivation during the summer, is subject to washing by 

 heavy winter rains. Such erosion T\dll largely be prevented 

 by the use of a vigorous growing cover-crop which will spread 

 well over the ground when planted in the early fall. Fur- 

 thermore such a cover-crop will take up the readily available 

 plant-food, thereby preventing its leaching out during the 

 winter and will return it to the soil the following spring when 

 the cover-crop is turned under, just at a time when the trees 

 are in greatest need of nourishment. 



Pecan orchard land with a considerable degree of slope 



^ See Chapter V. 



