of the pecan and the big nut shellbark hickory. This is also the home of several other hickories and of the black walnut.
These very fertile meadows, these little Nile valleys, are the natural home of a two-story agriculture, pasture beneath, tree crops above. Owing to the high water level from the nearby streams, the moisture supply is usually abundant. Owing to the overflowing of muddy water, fertility is so abundant that the high-headed pecans, hickories, walnuts, honey locusts, oaks, or other trees can bear their maximum crop[1] without causing much diminution of the grass at their feet. I venture to suggest that enough pecans to supply the world's market for the next thirty years can be grown on such unplowable overflow lands in the proved homelands of the pecan. (Chapter XIX.)
XII. STARTING THE TREE FARM
Suppose some one wishes to start a tree-crops farm. How shall he begin? The answer is plain. Begin gradually. One thing this book is most emphatically not: it is not a recommendation to the business interests of the United States to plant out a large tract of any crop-yielding tree. Such one-crop-gambling enterprises have overhead charges which usually eat them up. A farm on the contrary already carries its overhead charges and an intelligent farmer can start experimenting with trees with no element of additional overhead—no purchase price of land, special tools, or anything but the trees themselves and the few things that may be directly used with the trees.
To one who is now farming and wishes to try tree crops, the thing to do is to go on with his farming as before. Start some trees in a small way. Try a few of several species or varieties. Experiment with them. Let the business grow in the light of experience. In due time the farm can be made over as things prove themselves. It can be done gradually in the same
- ↑ This land has the lowland disadvantage of frost, but this is mitigated by the low (or absent) cost of trees that care for themselves.
