The greatest care should be taken to prevent the roots from becoming dry, if they do, the chances of their living, after planting, are very greatly reduced.
From the time the trees are lifted from the nursery row until they are set in the orchard, the sun should never be allowed to shine on them. Neither should they be exposed to hot or drying winds. Should it happen that the trees are received before everything is ready for planting them, they should be unpacked and healed in, in a shady place.
The roots of the trees must be pruned before planting, but this should be done under a shed. All broken parts of roots should be carefully cut off, leaving good, smooth surfaces, and the taproot cut or pruned back, as described in the chapter on pruning. When the pruning is finished, the trees should be wrapped in a damp blanket or in damp sacks and taken to the field. When needed for planting, they should be removed one by one and set out.
CHAPTER XI.
CULTIVATION AND FERTILIZATION.
Too many of our ideas of fruit culture are borrowed from the woods, from the trees in the pasture lands and uncultivated places generally. As the pecan is a forest tree in many sections of the country, the inference is, that it needs no cultivation, no fertilizer, in short, is amply able to take care of itself. So it is, but not able to yield, at the same time, the large crops of nuts that are the object of its being planted.
From the woods, there is one lesson which it would be well for everyone to learn; a lesson, not of the trees, but of the soil, of the dense mass of mold, of partially decayed leaves, of vegetable matter, of humus that covers the forest floor. The soil in the pecan orchard needs humus, vegetable matter; so does the soil in any other kind of orchard, and to obtain results it must be provided.
Now, it is a well-known fact that a number of years (ten or twelve) must elapse before a pecan orchard will begin to give any adequate returns for the time and care bestowed upon it and the money invested in it. During this period, if rightly handled, the ground may be made to produce something else than pecan trees, and that, too, without injury to them. But in growing a crop in the orchard, bear in mind that the trees need, and are benefited by, cultivation, and that fertilizer will make them grow.