BOWIE, MARYLAND 11 



HOW TO SET TREES 



Tree roots should never be allowed to dry. They must be kept 

 moist and the trees set as soon as possible. If the ground is hard 

 and dry it is best to dynamite the holes a month or two in advance 

 of setting; if it is loose and moist dynamiting is unnecessary. The 

 hole should be sufficiently large to allow the tree to stand the same 

 depth it stood in the nursery and all lateral roots to be in their 

 natural positions. Pack the soil firmly about the roots and stake 

 the trees as soon as set. 



DISTANCE APART TO SET NUT TREES 



When trees are set for avenue purposes or along fence rows they 

 may be set much closer together than when set in orchard form. 

 Pecans, Persian walnuts and black walnuts when set along fence 

 rows or avenues, may be set forty feet apart; but when set in 

 solid blocks, Persian walnuts should be set fifty feet apart, which 

 is seventeen trees to the acre; black walnuts and pecans should be 

 set about sixty feet apart, which is twelve trees to the acre. Some 

 adopt the plan of setting their pecan and walnut trees thirty to 

 thirty-five feet apart and thinning them out when they get ten to 

 fifteen years old. This has the advantage of affording the oppor- 

 tunity of eliminating most of the undesirable individual trees and 

 leaving the best varieties and best bearers — a very good practice 

 if one is sure to thin them out before they begin crowding. 



SOIL 



Nut trees grow best in deep, rich soil, well cultivated. That is 

 the ideal. However, few orchards are grown in ideal soil. They will 

 not succeed in shallow soil underlaid near the surface with rock, 

 hardpan, or quicksand, but generally if land in the proper latitude 

 will not produce nut trees it will not produce anything else profit- 

 ably. If your soil is not rich make it so. 



FERTILIZERS 



Pecans and walnuts do best on land that has been limed. It is 

 our practice to use about a pound of bone meal w T ell mixed with the 

 soil that is returned to the tree hole. Up to the age of six or seven 

 years we have found the best fertilizers to be ground bone, wood 

 ashes and stable manure. After that, most of the fertilizing should 

 be done by intercropping with legumes, adding phosphate in some 

 form each vear. 



