Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-22
will keep moist until your time for planting

is At hand.
Nuts thoroughly dried will usually come
very well, but we have always thought
that the young plants started from such
nuts were scarcely SO vigorous at first as
those from nuts that had not been allowed
to dry out. In planting dried nuts we
would always soak them in water two OF
three days before planting.
The very best lands for pecan groves are
deep and rich alluvial or bottom lands along
streams. II they are exposed to occasional
overflow from the streams that makes moth
ing against the grove. They must not be
wet and soggy lands, however, which
| means, water must not stand on and
through them after the streams have gone
! down.
| Lands more of an upland character may
answer very well for pecan grove, pro-
| vided they are deep. The pecan is tap
| root tree, and must get tap root well
| down before it can amount to much. If
| there is a regular rock deposit only few
| feet beneath the surface to check the down
| ward growth of the tap-root pecan grove
can never be made anything of success on
that locality.
Thirty-five feet apart is popular dis
lance for setting trees in the pecan grove,
but we would prefer not less than forty
feet. The trees of a thirty-fiye feet grove
| might not become seriously crowded within
the lifetime of the planter, but one must re-
member that the pecan tree is something to
stand and increase in size through centur
les. We have often seen trees measuring
from sixty to seventy feet through the top
from outside TO outside. What would a
grove of such trees do standing only thirty
five feet apart2
The seed-dealer will always recommend
close planting which is to his own personal
interest, for he wants to sell you all the
nuts possible, but you had best exercise
your own good common sense in that mat
ter. Some dealers propose planting twenty
feet apart, each alternate tree to be cut out
when the age of crowding has been reached,
but if you undertake that kind of thing you
Will have rather tough job on your hands,
for no growth we know of is harder to
eradicate than the pecan once it is fairly
TO send up fresh sprouts annually, where
annually removed, for fully twenty years.
That stump, then, would DE robbing your
soil Tor twenty years to the serious injury
of the remaining trees.
Plant at least forty feet apart, and if you
desire to occupy the intervening space up
to the time when it will be needed by the
grove, you can plant some kind Of smaller
growing trees between the rows, to be e.
moved eventually. At all events you can
cultivate the space to crops, for roots of
the pecan run deep, and hence would not
at all interfere with regular tillage.
But one should be little particular as to
the kind of crops grown in the young
grove. No crop should ever be put in that
viii rise above the lower branches of the
pecan tree; it will not bear choking with
tall crops Immediately around it.
Dig out holes for your hills at least two
feet in diameter and one foot deep, and fill
the excavation with surface mould rich in
vegetable matter. Leaf mould scraped up
under trees or along fence lines answers the
purpose well. If this cannot be had, then
scrapings from the surface of good wild
land anywhere may be made to do very
well Many persons recommend putting in
instance. We would never risk ma
nure of any kind in the hill The pecan is
a wild growth, so to speak, and hence de-
mands wild conditions If your land is so
poor that you cannot get surface mould rich
enough for your purpose, you had best
crack your pecans and give up all idea of
doing anything towards success with pc
can grove.
We don't object to Emanuring the pecan
grove-not bit of it-Dut we think the
manures should be spread upon the surface
to have their principles carried down to the
roots by rains. 1t is not probable that you
could get artificial manures so well rotted
that they would not, to some extent, inter-
fere with termination, or enfeeble the
young trees if put into the hill
Plant the nuts from three to four inches
deep and pack the mould over them as
firmly as you can by treading on the hill.
Pour on quart of water. Do not leave a
depression over the nuts, but rake the hill
off level with the surrounding surface. A
single nut in the hill would be enough if one
knew that it would come, but since there
may be some failures we would prefer to
plant three or four nuts, and then, after
the plants were established, cutting all
away save one-the best one, OF course
Never think of transplating the pecan,
but always plant the nuts where the trees
are 10 stand. The young trees may be
transplanted easily enough, but pecan
trees never do well after transplanting.
Plant at any time from the season when
the nuts are first thoroughly ripe on to
March of the next spring.
1t is unnecessary to go into any special
preparation of the land for pecan grove.
Wild lands may be successfully planted in
any river or creek bottom by merely cut
ting away the crowding overgrowths and
digging out and filling the hills as already
directed. Nor is special after-culture
necessary other than to prevent crowding
by other growths. For best growth the
young pecan must have sunlight and air,
and particularly plenty Of the latter After
culture is nothing whatever against the
young trees-we may run crops on the
land, as already suggested, but the crops