The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-01-17
HORTICULTURE
PRCANs AND THEIR CULTURE.

Fourteen years ago I planted out in
the open cotton field, about thou
sand pecan trees. II was an expert
ment at that time and most people
laughed at me. They admitted that a
pecan grove in bearing was a very
valuable thing, but they said I could
not get a grove that way, and if I did
it would be ages before I got it into
bearing. Well the years have passed
by only too swiftly, and my pecan
grove is now in bearing. 1t became
profitable and is nov paying good rent
on the land. Tt will increase in value
every year now, and be the most profit
able investment / could possibly have.
I have planted the grove in cotton for
fourteen years, but the trees are now
too large to plant cotton there any
more. My best tree has brought me
in q revenue of $45 this year. OF course
all my trees are not doing that we'll,
or 1 would not be writing this article
from Mound, La. But they are all
coming nicely into bearing, and it will
not be long before they are all profit
able. 1 find no q hculty in selling all
my pecans at fine prices, the me rrity
of them being above the average of
those found In commerce.
l planted the pecans in the open cot
ton fields in rows sixty feet apart, and
the trees thirty feet apart in the rows.
I pnt three pieces of shingle about each
nut to mark the spot and protect the
seed, and when the trees were one e
old I put a pest by each one, eq"are in
the cotton row, and about four feet
from the tree, which kept the mule
and pillow from iDjuring them. When
the trees were five years old they were
big enough to take care Cf themselves.
Cotton ia the very best thing to plant
in a pecan grove because we never neg
lect our cotton; we give it thorough
cultivation, and the pecans get the ad
vantage of ii.
1t has been said that you cannot get
a fine pecan grove by planting the
seed This is a mistake, as | have
proved here myself. It is true that the
seed do not reproduce themselves with
any eX9ctness, but where fine seed are
planted you get a large proportion of
trees that bear fine nuts much large
than those usually found in commerce
IF any trees come inferior they can be
either budded and changed into fne
trees, or cut out where they are too
too thick. In planting seed it il very
important to get them from trees that
bear heavy crops every year I have
several such trees N my grove. 1t 10
nearly as important to plant lars @
sizad nuts that are well filled out 4nu
have fine hIvor. Heretofore size alore
hes been considered in planting pacans
and this has been a great mistake
Let no man think be can get a pecan
grove without care and labor. It is p
mistake to think shat you can putseeu
in the ground, and that they will take
care of the mselves After planting
good seed, thorough cultivation for
the first ten years i5 the most essential
point, Where this is given their
growth is doubled in the same length
of time. Where one is willing to give
a pecan grove thorough attention, no
Investment will pay as well; yet il you
do not give this attention it is best nos
to plant them.
While pecans grow Somewhat slower
on billy land than on alluvial soil, still
some of the finest trees / ever knew
we're in the high hills of Mississippi
By using fertilizers and manures a
very fine grove can be had in the hills.
Anything that will serve to fertilize
corn OF cotton will do for the pecan,
but it is best, where the manure is very
strong, not to put it too close to the
tap root, for then it will burn it.-Sam
Il. James, Mound, La, in the Cotton
Painters Journal.