BOWIE, MARYLAND 



shade that carpets the turf with wandering patches of sunshine. Lawn grasses 

 flourish on the filtered sunshine falling through pecan foliage. The leaves of 

 pecan trees all shed in the fall and do not litter the grass during the growing 

 season. The wood is tough, strong and heavy. The limbs are seldom broken off, 

 even in severe storms, and its strong taproot fastens it so firmly in the soil that 

 it is not blown down by the fiercest winds. At a hundred years it is a mere juvenile, 

 while during that period it has marked the passing of three generations of men. 

 It would be difficult to find another kind of tree possessing so many of the charac- 

 teristics of what might be considered the ideal shade tree. How much better it 

 would be to have trees of this kind in lawns and house-yards, rather than the 

 unsightly sterile trees that one so commonly sees! 



The pecan grows to perfection on well-watered lawns and seems to be even 

 more at home in the society of man than in the solitude of its primaeval river bot- 

 toms. The moisture and fertility about walls and under buildings stimulates it into 

 such vigorous growth that it will keep pace with the most rapid-growing species of 

 trees. On any well-kept lawn a pecan tree six or eight years old will be giving valua- 

 ble shade. At the same time it will be giving also increasing crops of delicious nuts. 



As an avenue tree the pecan is one of the very best, because it possesses in a 

 high degree the qualities that give an avenue character. In the first place it has 

 the size and habit of growth that gives dignity to the surroundings. Its vigor of 

 growth, combined with its waving, pendant foliage, adds an air of watchful pro- 

 tection to the entrance of the house. The fundamental idea with the founder of 

 a home is that that home should be as enduring as possible. What would more 

 tend to the lasting permanence of a homestead than an avenue of pecan trees 

 which would guard it for a century or more?" 



A beautiful shady avenue of young pecan trees. 



