Part 12 (1/2)

Small grains, oats, wheat, etc., should be rigidly excluded. When corn or cotton is planted, leave out a row or two of the crops where the tree row is. Let the trees have feeding s.p.a.ce, but cultivate all the ground.

If the season is dry, then give cultivation just as often as can be done. Every week or ten days, between the first of April and the first or middle of July, the ground should be stirred in young orchards.

Shallow cultivation is all that is necessary after the first plowing. A weeder or light harrow will do the work. This shallow cultivation will preserve a dust mulch, a couple of inches or so in depth, and the loss of soil moisture by capillary action and evaporation will thereby be prevented; more moisture will be retained in the soil and the trees will be benefited accordingly.

Whether the orchard is planted in a crop or not, cultivation should begin about the time growth starts in spring. The ground should be plowed and leveled with a cultivator. After that, frequent shallow cultivation should be given with a light harrow or weeder. Once every week or ten days, if the weather is dry, will result in much good to the trees. If a shower should fall during one of these dry periods, the ground should be cultivated just as soon as it can be worked. A light harrow, which will break up the surface crust formed by the rain and leave instead a shallow mulch of pulverized soil, will go a long way toward conserving and holding the water which has been added by the recent rainfall.

The cultivation of old orchards may vary somewhat from that given younger ones. Some recommend that the old orchard be seeded to gra.s.s (Bermuda or Johnson gra.s.s) and used as a pasture. This may answer in some cases, particularly on very rich, alluvial soils, but, in general, it will not do as a definite policy year in and year out. Those orchards planted in gra.s.s which the author has had an opportunity to examine, have usually shown a large percentage of trees with branches dead at the tips, ”stagheaded,” with yellow leaves and a general appearance of unthriftiness. It may have been that these orchards were planted in gra.s.s while the trees were too young. The better treatment, and the safer one to follow in old orchards, is to cultivate the ground in spring and sow down in cowpeas or some other legume. Beggarweed, velvet beans or soja beans will answer well in many localities. Allow these to make what growth they will, and, when dead and dry, plow them back into the soil. It may seem strange to cultivate a forest tree, but it is the plan to follow to get results. Good results could doubtless be secured by seeding the pecan orchard in alfalfa and using it for a hog pasture up to the ripening season.

Cultivation should not be prolonged too late. If it be, the trees will continue to grow later than they should. Enough time will not be left in many sections before the coming of the first frosts. If the immature, sappy wood is caught by an early frost, severe injury may result. In the more southern extension of the pecan area cultivation can be carried on later than toward the northern limits of the region. Ordinarily, it is safest to cease cultivation not later than July the first to July the fifteenth.

FERTILIZATION.

On deep rich, alluvial soils the trees may not need to be fertilized, but many of the soils on which pecans have been set in orchard form, require to be fertilized to secure the best results. The three important plant foods required by plants and most frequently deficient in soils are nitrogen, phosphorus and potash. One or two or all three of these substances may have to be supplied.

Nitrogen, which is used by the trees largely in making growth of leaf and wood, may be supplied from a number of different sources, viz: stable manure, cotton seed, cotton-seed meal, dried blood, fish sc.r.a.p, sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda. These substances are the princ.i.p.al commercial sources of nitrogen. Large amounts of nitrogen are gathered by leguminous crops; cowpeas, vetch, beggarweed, velvet beans, alfalfa and others may be planted to advantage, resulting in a great saving in fertilizer bills, and besides, adding the necessary vegetable matter and humus.

The most common source of phosphorus, usually referred to as phosphoric acid, is acid phosphate. Some is obtained from bone, and bone meal is a good fertilizer to use among pecan trees. The results obtained from its use are not immediate, but since the bone does not decay rapidly, they extend over a considerable period. On the whole, acid phosphate is as satisfactory as any material as a source of phosphoric acid, and the goods with the highest percentage are usually the most economical in the end. A good grade is that a.n.a.lyzing fourteen per cent.

Potash may be purchased, as kainit, the raw salt, or as muriate of potash, low grade sulphate of potash and high grade sulphate of potash.

Of these the sulphates are usually given the preference in fruit growing. Of the domestic sources of potash, woodashes are important.

The amount of fertilizer which it is best to apply is difficult to decide upon; much depends on the character of the soil, what crops are cultivated and whether a crop of legumes is grown or not.

If legumes are grown for the benefit of the orchard, they should be fertilized, and if the crop is turned back into the soil, this may be sufficient for the trees, particularly while they are young. For the legumes, a good fertilizer to use per acre is:

Kainit, 100 lbs.; Acid Phosphate, 200 lbs.

or, High-Grade Sulphate of Potash, 50 lbs.

Acid Phosphate, 200 lbs.

In any case some allowance should be made for the amount of nitrogen collected by the legumes. When corn, cotton or some other crops are grown in the orchard, fertilizing may simply consist in distributing an additional amount of the crop fertilizer for the benefit of the trees.

For the growth of the young trees, a larger amount of nitrogen and a relatively smaller amount of phosphoric acid and potash are required, while for older trees, the reverse is true. Phosphoric acid and potash are required by bearing trees for the formation of fruit. Consequently, when the pecan orchard comes into bearing, these materials should be increased in the fertilizer applied. If the soil is not very rich at the time of planting, good results will follow the use of a pound of good commercial fertilizer at the time of planting.

A good fertilizer for young trees should a.n.a.lyze five per cent.

phosphoric acid, six per cent. potash and four per cent. nitrogen. For bearing trees, one a.n.a.lyzing eight per cent. phosphoric acid, ten per cent. potash and four per cent. nitrogen will give good results. If so desired, well-known brands of commercial fertilizers, having approximately the above a.n.a.lysis, can be purchased in the markets, but if preferred, the several materials may be purchased separately, then mixed and applied.

APPLYING THE FERTILIZER.

The roots of young trees do not extend to any great distance away from the trunk. In distributing the fertilizer this fact should be remembered. A safe rule for all small-sized trees is to commence just outside an imaginary circle of two feet radius and apply the fertilizer in a circular band extending out some distance beyond the spread of the branches. Old trees, or those having a considerable spread of top, when planted in orchard form, should be fertilized by broadcasting the fertilizer over the ground. In the northerly pecan sections, all the fertilizer should be given in one application, about the time growth starts in spring, and plowed in, while farther south, two applications may be made, one at the time mentioned above, the other from the first to the middle of June.

CHAPTER XII.