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.

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.