SOILS AND THEIR PREPARATION.
The pecan succeeds on such a wide range of soils, that it is really
easier to list those on which it should not be set than it is to
enumerate those on which it may be planted. Of the soils not adapted to
it, deep sandy lands, soils underlaid with quicksand close to the
surface, soils with hardpan subsoil, wet, sour, poorly-drained lands,
and stiff, pasty clays, may be mentioned particularly.
If pecans are planted on land with a quicksand subsoil, the roots are
unable to make their way downward through the quicksand. So far as being
able to take a downward direction is concerned, they might as well be
planted on top of a plate of metal. The writer once planted a few nuts
on such a soil, to see what they would do. At the end of three years the
tops were about two feet in height; the taproot, while thick and stocky,
was not more than six inches long. It stopped abruptly after numerous
efforts to penetrate the quicksand. In normally developed trees of the
same age, the taproot would have been three or four feet long. The same
objections hold against soils underlaid with a hard, impervious layer.
While the pecan is at home on rich, alluvial river bottoms subject to
overflow, yet it will not grow successfully on damp, soggy lands. It
should not be planted on such soils unless they can be well drained,
and not then until they have been limed and cultivated for some time to
counteract the acidity of the land. We can definitely say that the pecan
will do well on alluvial river bottoms, on sandy, loamy soils with a
clay or sandy-clay foundation, on sandy-clay lands with clay
predominating, on the flat woods sandy lands so common in the
southeastern Gulf States, and on the higher uplands where hickory,
dogwood, holly and oak abound.
[Illustration: FIG. 26. Pecan Tree grown on quicksand. Note the
taproot.]
It is a fact worthy of note, however, that on extremely rich soils, the
pecan will make wood growth at the expense of fruit, while on lands
containing less fertility, less growth is developed with a
proportionately large amount of fruit.
Choose not the poorest soil by any means, but a good, sandy loam in
which there is a considerable amount of humus. A subsoil containing a
very considerable amount of clay is to be preferred, by all means, for
such a soil, with intelligent management, will gain rapidly in
fertility.
PREPARATION.
The preparation of the soil should be complete and thorough. It may be
stated, as an axiomatic truth, that the soil cannot be prepared for
trees as well after they are planted as it can before, and nothing is to
be gained by planting the trees in poorly prepared land. Better by all
means to spend a year or more in getting the land in shape.
If the land is covered with a growth of timber, this should be cleared
away and the ground cultivated for a year at least before the trees are
set. Corn is probably the best crop to grow on new land, and at the last
working cowpeas should be sowed. On fairly good land this will be
sufficient, but on poorer ground the land should be continued in
cultivation another year, sowing it down in beggarweed, cowpeas, soja
beans, or velvet beans. These crops should be plowed into the soil in
autumn or early winter, after they are dead and dry.
On lands which have been cultivated for some time, these same crops
should be sowed for one season previous to planting, at least. Every
effort should be made to insure a good stand and a good growth.
Inoculation of the seed with nitrogen-gathering germs will help, and a
good fertilizer, such as the one recommended for these crops elsewhere,
should be applied. Nothing will insure a good growth in the young trees
so well as the nitrogen and humus added to the soil by leguminous crops.
Stable manure may also be used to advantage.
The ground should be deeply and thoroughly broken with a two-horse plow.
In many cases the soil conditions will be greatly improved by the use of
a subsoil plow, running it after the ordinary plow so as to break and
loosen the soil to a depth of twelve or fifteen inches, or even more.