Nurserymen in the future will have to deal with this transplanting problem in a different way than the old time nurserymen who handles fruit trees.  A suggested way to improve the root system and at the same time make it easy to lift the tree with a ball of dirt, similar to the way an evergreen is transplanted, is to prepare a pocket of special transplanting soil previous to the lining out (which is the term used by nurserymen in setting out seedlings preparatory to grafting them in nursery rows).  A suggested balanced soil for making the method practical is to use 1/2 by volume of peat moss; the other half should be rich, black sandy loam with very little clay mixture in it.  In other words, each nut tree should be allowed about a bushel of soil for its development, 1/2 bushel to be peat moss, the other half bushel to be represented by rich black loam.  This mixture will encourage many fibrous roots to develop and when the tree is dug, approximately all of this bushel of soil will be retained around the roots.  Having such a high proportion of peat moss makes it lighter than ordinary ground; such a ball and the tree will weigh approximately from 100 to 125 pounds which can be shipped by freight at a low rate and is well worth the extra price that nurserymen must ask for a specimen of this kind.  Such trees have really never been unplanted and for this reason do not suffer the shock which is inevitable in the usual transplanting process.  Although pre-planted trees are more expensive to buy and to transport, their improved chances of living make them worth the price.  The above recommendation is especially applicable to young grafted hickory trees since they are among the most difficult trees to transplant satisfactorily.  The English walnut (Persian), black walnut, butternut and especially the hickory are improved by the use of a handful of ground lime mixed with the soil in preparing these pockets which will later constitute the ball surrounding the roots of the tree to be transplanted.

There is a tendency in grafted trees to produce sprouts below the graft.  Unless these are rubbed off, the grafted portion will become discouraged and the tree will revert to a seedling variety.  Filberts should never be allowed more than two or three stems, or trunks, while one is more preferable.  If they are allowed to have more, they will produce a rank growth of wood but only a few, if any, nuts.  I stress, by repeating, that trees should not be planted too deeply and that great care must be taken to eliminate air pockets.  Extra effort and nursing of transplanted trees during the first season will be repaid by their successful development and growth.

It is a wise precaution to place a protective screen around the trunk of each tree to prevent rodents from attacking it.  Mice gnaw off the bark near the ground, sometimes girdling a tree and so killing it.  Rabbits chew off branches and they, too, may girdle the upper part of a tree.  Rabbits are very fond of pecan and hickory bark.  In some places, it may be necessary to encircle each pecan and hickory tree with a three or four-foot rabbit fence until the tree is large enough to lose its appeal to these nuisances.