348 STATE HOETIOULTURAL SOCIETY. 



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under the ground; and then, in cultivtiting they have thrown the dirt 

 up to the trees, thus burying the roots still deeper in the ground, with 

 the result that the root, which is down in hard-pan, doubled up as 

 above stated, unable to spread out and to get food, either rots and 

 dies or throws out a root above the collar, which being in the culti- 

 vated soil makes a rapid growth, soon performing all the work of the 

 tree, while the roots below, deprived of their function, soon rot off up 

 to the new root, which being only on one side, is unable to support 

 the tree, and the tirst wind that comes along after the old roots have 

 rotted off blows it over, or the whole tree is killed by the rot extending 

 to the new root. This is purely the result of bad management. 



Bat the form first spoken of is the one to be feared, as it attacks 

 the trees which have done the best, and which were well selected, 

 with good roots, well planted in soil properly prepared. It is to this 

 form I wish to draw particular attention. There is one grave fault in 

 the method of reating the trees here, which I think is greatly con- 

 ducive to the frequency of this kind of rot. All the orchards I have 

 examined here are subject to the same criticism, not excluding my own 

 till this year. We have been cultivating the earth up around the trees 

 till the collar of the tree is six inches, and in some instances a foot, 

 below the surface of the ground. I would advise any one here who 

 doubts this statement who has an orchard, to examine his trees before 

 he denies the statement. That this is an unnatural way to grow them, 

 one has but to look at the forest trees to find the proof. 



In the natural growth of the forest tree you see the top roots as 

 they enter the ground; by covering the part of the tree above the 

 point where the root begins to show, the tree will, more than likely, be 

 killed; by doing this an unnatural condition is produced ; the sunlight 

 and air can not reach that part of the tree it did before the tree was 

 covered up; the old bark is, in consequence, prevented from expand- 

 ing and sloughing off as nature intended it should do, in preparation for 

 the expansion necessary to allow the new layer of wood (put on each 

 season ) from extending down the tree; the tree is, in short, girdled by 

 the binding bark. The sap below the point. girdled sours and rots the 

 roots, except in those cases where the root throws up a sprout below 

 the point girdled, and then the rot extends only to the sprout; if there 

 are no sprouts, then the rot soon extends to all the roots. 



The fact that our orchardists have been planting the trees so deep 

 in the ground is the cause of the rooi rot in the majority of cases 

 where the work has been properly done and the right kind of trees 

 planted. 



