tree needs distinctly more petting in its early stages than the apple tree. In contrast to this the seedlings are very tough.
The pecan can scarecly be called a tender tree. Once it is established its great root system makes it hard to kill.[1]</ref> Mr. Ford Wilkinson, of Rockport, Indiana, reports three-foot seedlings with roots nine feet long. Unfortunately the blossoms are not as hardy as the trees. I have not tabulated the record, but I have noticed that in some seasons a combination of weather factors will kill pecans, walnuts, and hickories, while apples and peaches come through with fair crops.
NATIVE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE PECAN
In its wild condition the pecan is a tempting tree. I am surprised that we have neglected it so long. It was an important asset to the carly settlers of the central Mississippi Basin. In
- ↑ An orchard of fine-looking trees has this history:
This grove is located at New Harmony, Indiana, and was the first pecan grove planted in this state, and it has had a varied history. The seed was saved from a very fine pecan by John B. Elliotte of New Harmony and planted in the fall of 1876. Trees were grown in Elliotte's Nursery for two years and then planted in the grove by Jacob Dransfield. The first winter after setting the rabbits cut them all back to the ground. They came up nicely the next spring, and Mr. Dransfield, to keep the rabbits off, set a four-inch drain tile over each one, and as they grew and the wind switched them around, it cut every one of them off; so that the damage was the same as that done by the rabbits. Mr. Dransfield then gave it up. After the Ohio River had overflowed several times, he paid no attention to the trees for several years but cultivated the land in corn. The pecans, however, were not so easily gotten rid of and kept coming up each season until finally they let them grow and the grove is the result." (Letter. W. C. Reed, Vincennes, Indiana. June 19, 1916, who said information was from Mr. Elliotte's son and Mrs. Dransfield, who were still living.)
gether in the blue grass (clay soil, good for about thirty-five bushels of corn per acre) along my upland lane in Loudoun County, Virginia, altitude 750 feet. They were not fertilized, cultivated, or in any way protected. It was a test. Both species were able to fight it out with the grass and make a high percentage of survival. In the dryer places it took the scedlings ten years to get five feet high, but they were very stocky and by the end of the decade they had begun to grow more rapidly. There is little doubt that most of the pecans will eventually become large trees if let alone. Where clumps of blackberry bushes invaded the grass, the trees are larger than the others. Grass is a deadly enemy to small trees and in some cases it may smother them fatally in the infant stage.
