GENERAL INFORMATION 
NUT trees will grow under ordinary weather conditions if planted right and 
good care. They may be planted either FALL or SPRING while they are dormant— 
After leaves fall and before buds start. 
On receiving your trees plant them without delay or heel them in moist soil 
until conditions are favorable. Under no conditions plant them in mud, let them freeze 
or dry out. 
Dig holes for planting several inches deeper and wider than the roots of the tree. 
Put enough loose dirt in the bottom so the tree will stand from one to two inches 
deeper than it stood before digging. A mark is usually left on the tree about one- 
third way from the roots to the graft. If planted too deep or shallow they may start 
but will die later or grow very poorly. Keep the roots of the trees covered and moist 
until ready to set and then take one at a time. Under no conditions let them lie ex¬ 
posed to wind and sun even for a minute. Fill in with fine, loose, rich top dirt sifting 
the dirt around the roots and tamping with a fork handle or other round end tamper. 
Tamp firmly leaving no loose dirt or open spaces around the roots. A little bone meal 
or tankage will do no harm but use no manure or other fertilizer in planting. Level 
the ground and then spade around your tree for two or three feet leaving a trench 
around the tree some two feet away to hold the water when it rains especially for 
pecans and hicans. Under no condition heap the dirt around your tree. You are not 
setting fenceposts. You can’t hardly keep farmers from doing that very thing. If you 
do not cultivate the land spade around the tree for six feet and keep it cultivated 
the first summer and later if you want best results. After the first heavy rain when 
the tree settles, level the dirt around the tree with loose dry dirt. Now you may fer¬ 
tilize around the tree and use coarse manure or other mulch but not touching the 
tree. If you cltivate your ground for crops, so much the better, especially if you grow 
some kind of clover or other leguminous crop—Cowpeas or soy beans. Any crop is 
better than no cultivation and corn is a distinct benefit. In cultivating, be careful 
not to let any machinery touch the trees. Set up stakes for protection. Should you 
have such an accident tie the bark back immediately and paint with whitelead paint 
or even mud if you have nothing else. If the bark grows back cut the binding. 
My pecans and hicans have all been transplanted and so have much better root 
systems but the tops must still be cut back to balance the roots. Any limbs you leave 
should be cut tw T o buds from the tree and the top two buds from last year’s growth. 
Any cutting is better than none. Some just cut the tree in half or two-thirds and use 
the best shoot after two years. One man I know cut the trees nearly to the graft and 
did not lose a tree. He wanted graftwood and got trees too. Cover all cuts with graft 
wax or paint—thick whitelead paint preferred. 
Trees of different varieties should be mixed so as to provide better for cross 
pollinization. When your trees begin to bear remember that cultivation and fertiliza¬ 
tion will raise better and bigger nuts same as for corn. The first nuts on any tree 
are liable to be small and disappointing but they will grow larger as the trees grow 
older. 
The trees must be protected from the hot sun after May 1st. the first year or 
two up as high as the limbs. Any way you do this will be a help. A board eight 
inches wide placed on the south side two inches or so from the tree will keep off the 
hot noonday sun and save the tree from beetles which lay eggs in the hot sun, or 
from sunscald. Both are fatal. Some trees have a slight bend at the graft which will 
later straighten out. The bend should be planted toward the sun so it will not get the 
vertical rays. A circle of picket fence is about the best protection all around. Trees 
may be wrapped with a layer of newspaper, cheese cloth or onion sack. Fly screen 
will help and keep off rodents which may gnaw the trees when young. A chicken yard 
is an excellent place for nut trees. But protect from sun scald. Chickens will keep 
off the beetles. 
Many fruit and shade tree nurseries sell SEEDLING nut trees for the price of 
grafted trees. Note my 25c price on such trees. 
Remember, I am more interested in the successful growth and bearin'? of the 
trees than in the sale which, however, may sell the most trees later. I shall be glad 
to learn of progress of your trees and to assist you if possible. 
