DR. MORRIS: In connection with the matter of cultivation I would also like to have Mr. Reed discuss that. I want to say, however, that, in using fertilizers, you will often very easily overdo the matter. Sometimes in my experience professionally, I give a patient medicine enough to last a week, with directions that a teaspoonful be taken twice a day, and the patient may believe if she takes the entire bottle at one dose she will be well in an hour, and consequently suffer from an overdose. That same idea is sometimes carried out in the fertilization of trees by horticulturists. You don't intend to do it but sometimes you can kill with kindness and be too good in feeding your trees if you don't understand how much fertilization the tree needs. That is the idea, you have got to give your trees the ratio that they need. If you give them too much pie or pudding, your trees will have indigestion and will not thrive and may die. I have lost a great many good trees, and a great many nut trees, and have checked the growth of a great many by not realizing this. I wish Mr. Reed would speak to us about it.
MR. POTTER: I want to state some experience I have had and when Mr. Reed talks, I wish he would give me some information. I set out some pecan trees on my lawn in the front yard, and of course there is not much cultivation there except around the trees. It is like most other lawns in southern Illinois, mostly clay and what other soil we put on top. Now the clay is very hard and in setting the trees I had my man dig a hole three feet deep and two feet across and in setting the trees I packed good dirt around them. The question is how should I feed those trees? I have put barn manure around them and they are now growing and doing very nicely, I want to know if I have pursued the right course.
MR. MCCOY: I believe this question of growing trees in fence corners and on hillsides is not so large a question. The main thing is to give them plenty of water. There is very little land in the Mississippi valley that won't grow pecan trees or most any other kind, if you will give them sufficient mulch and plenty of water, because they take their food in the form of soup. Unless they have water, they won't grow. I believe the best cultivation you can give a tree of any kind is a good mulch of straw and manure. You that have had experience in this part of the country know that is the best way to cultivate trees.