HORTICULTURAL RESEARCH 285 



those of the unrammed trees. The superiority in vigour, as 

 measured by the increased growth, amounted in many cases to 

 100 per cent, and in some cases to a great deal more ; an excess 

 of 50 per cent, may be taken as an average. That this was due 

 to increased root-formation was evident on lifting some of the 

 trees; instances are given in the accompanying figures. 



One great advantage of this method of planting is that it 

 is not a fair-weather method but can be safely practised 

 however wet the soil may be and at a time when planting 

 in the ordinary way would be out of the question. Nor does 

 the ramming consist in merely patting the soil but of pounding 

 it till it is effectually puddled ; so much so that, in our soil, it 

 is quite possible, by stamping with the heel on the ground, to 

 recognise a tree which has been rammed, even two years after 

 the operation. That this consolidation of the soil is a bad 

 thing in itself cannot be doubted and if the whole of the ground 

 were treated in this way the results would probably be fatal ; 

 but in point of fact only a small portion of ground is rammed 

 and the roots soon spread into the looser soil beyond : the only 

 signs of a deleterious effect which have been noticed are that 

 during the first half of the season following the planting the 

 rammed trees are more backward than the unrammed ones, 

 their superiority not asserting itself till the end of the first 

 season, in some cases not till the second season. In one 

 instance only has ramming proved disastrous, that was in the 

 case of some trees planted in the London clay, at Merton, 

 where the absence of aeration affected the soil so much that 

 it became quite black and gave off hydrogen sulphide, which 

 killed the trees. In other heavy and clayey soils (the Woburn 

 farm itself is situated on the Oxford clay) no such deleterious 

 effect has been noticed and in most cases the beneficial results 

 of the ramming in heavy soils have been conspicuous. On the 

 other hand, in light sandy soils ramming has no effect, for the 

 simple reason that any consolidation of the soil effected by 

 this operation will have disappeared before the tree starts into 

 growth in the following spring. 



Damaged Roots 



In thus roughly ramming a tree into the ground some 

 mechanical damage must often be done to the roots ; but this 

 is of little or no consequence, as may easily be realised when 



