March i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



6^^ 



IS IT GOOD TO DIG ABOUT TKEES? 



This is a question that will very well bear discussion. 

 We know that of old tue question was answered practic- 

 ally in the affirmative in the parable of the unfruitful 

 tree, where the head gardener pled for the tree that it 

 might be suffered to remain until he had dug about the 

 roots and manui-ed it. There would probably be ninety 

 answers in the affirmative to ten in the negative if the 

 answer were asked offhand. But when we come to look 

 around us and find that there are trees growing in 

 certain places, green to the utmost point of the tallest 

 branches, but which trees never are dug about the roots 

 from year to year, whilst other trees that are regularly 

 dug about, perhaps twice or thrice a year, -with the result 

 of a sickly habit and poor yields of fruit, it begins to 

 make one doubt whether after all it may not be better, 

 in some cases at least, to leave the trees a little more 

 to nature. A very large number of our-fruit- trees — notably 

 the orange— send out innumerable fibrous roots close to 

 the surface, and every time the soil about these trees is 

 dug, the spade cuts away or mutilates these roots, so 

 that the foliage is either not sufficiently nourished and 

 drops off, or an excessive call is made upon the few re- 

 maining roots, and as a matter of course the points of 

 the shoots or branches fail and die. Such a phenomenon 

 is often witnessed where trees are planted upon very 

 stony and unsuitable ground or upon a shallow soil pos- 

 sessing a stiff subsoil of clay. The roots cannot get down 

 deep enough, and the supply of moisture in dry weather 

 is not sufficient for the growth that was made in spring ; 

 therefore some of the growth has to be sacrificed, and 

 in a i-nry fe /.' ycrs such trees assume an aged and worn- 

 out appearance. 



There are a very few persons who advocate a deep 

 and thorough breaking up of the soil in the first case, 

 but particularly retaining the relative positions of surface 

 and subsoils, and then leaving the orchard alone, except 

 as to weeding and pruning the trees. Some, indeed, go 

 futrher, and maintain, with much probability in their 

 argument, that the surface should be planted with 

 grasses, which by permeating the soil, and through the 

 operations of worms, &c., keep the surface aerated and 

 sweet, and give the fibrous roots of the trees every op- 

 portunity of ramifying the earth. Once every year they ' 

 wood give a good top dressing of old leaf mould or 

 thoroughly decomposed manure from the stable, but beyond 

 this and pruning they would do nothing. It is also 

 maintained that the grass keeps the roots of the trees ; 

 shaded and cool, but this office would be quite as i 

 effectually performed by the foliage and branches if the 

 tree were in proper health and vigoiu*. One gi-eat fault 

 in some fruit-growers in that of trimming up the stem 

 to make a tall tree, which exposes the trunk of the tree 

 to the fierce rays of the summer sun, by which the bark 

 becomes baketl, hardened, and incapable of properly con- 

 vejring the sap, and the roots are at the same time dried 

 up from the same cause. As the tree gains age, the 

 effective working fibrous roots are extended further and 

 further from the bole or stem, and to properly shade 

 these roots the branches should be near the ground and 

 extend a considerable distances around. There are certain 

 plants that will grow beneath the shade of trees, and if 

 planted under a young tree it will be observed that the 

 plants near the stem are stunted and dwarfed, while the 

 outer rings increase in vigour as they extend from the 

 centre. "With an older tree a contrary effect is produced, 

 the plants nearer the stem are full of vigour, whilst the 

 outer rings dwindle away to the smallest size. This is 

 due to the fact that the young trees have extended their 

 fibrous root to only a very short distance from the 

 stem, anil of course absorb all the moistm-e and nutri- 

 ment from the earth beneath the other plants, but under 

 the older trees the opposite is the case, and the outer 

 plants are drained, whilst those near the stem of the 

 tree gain a full supply. Where the trees naturally send 

 their fibrous root-s to a good depth below the surface, it 

 is highly probable that the practice of digging about 

 the tree is beneficial ; but it certainly is opposed to com- 

 mon sense to suppose that the annual destruction or 

 mutilation of the effective feeding roots of a tree should 

 promote its health and luxuriance. On the contrary, it 

 appears calculated to inflict serious injury, and the dying 



away of the topmost branches of peach, apricot, and plum 

 trees might perhaps in most instances be attributed to 

 this practice. A good mulch of old htter around the roots 

 of an old tree — not round the stem — has very often pro- 

 longed its hfe and vigour, whilst digging away its roots 

 would have inevitably ^Mq<X it. —Adelaide Observer. 



THE BAMBOOS AND THEIR USES. 



Having occasion to look np some matters relating to 

 the Bamboo tribe of grasses, we were reminded that, 

 after the cereals and the forage plants, no grasses were 

 so useful to manlrind as these. We have often wondered 

 that no attempt has been made to cultivate the larger 

 species in this country ; a few, dwarf kinds, six or eight 

 feet high, have been introduced as ornamental plants, but 

 there seems to be no reason why the tall and useful kinds 

 should not have been grown in the southern portion, at 

 least, of our country, and we have no doubt that some 

 may be found that will succeed in the Middle States. 

 We have one native species of the Bamboo tribe, the cane 

 {Arundiiiariaa) -vihich iovuis extensive brakes in the South- 

 ern States, and extends to Virginia and Southern Illinois. 

 As several of the gignatic Bamboos grow in the colder 

 parts of Japan, and others are found at an altitude of 

 several thousand on the Himalayas, it is highly probable 

 that some species are sufficiently hardy to succeed over 

 a large portion of our territory. There are some 120 

 species of the Bamboo tribe, divided into about 20 genera ; 

 these are mostly natives of Asia, but one has been found 

 in Africa, and several in South and Central America. 

 The larger Bamboos grow from 30 to over 100 feet in 

 height, and from 6 inches to a foot or more in diameter ; 

 like other grasses, the stem is marked by 

 joints (nodes) at which point there is a transverse partition 

 in the otherwise hollow trunk. These joints, from which 

 the leaves arise, in time become bare below and givo 

 a peculiar appearance to a forest of Bamboos. 

 The leaves are small in proportion to the size of the plant, 

 being rarely much over IS inches long, and 2 to 3 inches 

 wide ; are clustered at the top of the stem. When grow- 

 ing in an isolated clump, the leafy tops of the tali stems 

 curving gracefully outward, the whole resL-mbles a huge 

 sheaf and is a picturesque object. The flowers are in 

 branching panicles, and indindual spikelets often being 

 very small, not larger than those of the 0.at, though larger 

 in others ; the seed is about the size of a grain of rice. 

 Some Bamboos flower annually : others require 20 or 30 

 years to become sufficient'y mature, and with these, the 

 stems often become so much exhausted that they die 

 after producing a crop of seeds, new stems springing from 

 the roots. On more than one occasion the seeding of the 

 Bamboos has adverted a famine ; one of these was in 

 1864, in Soopa, a district on the west cost of India ; it 

 is stated that some 50,000 persons came from other 

 districts to collect the seeds, which formed in many cases 

 their sole subsistence. The loaves are used to cover the 

 roofs of houses, to stuff bir-is. and afford a forage for 

 horses. To enumerate the uses to which the stems of 

 Bamboos are put would be as difficult as to catalogue the 

 uses of wood. In some eastern countries, the stems enter 

 largely into the construction of the house, and of most 

 of the furniture within it. They serve as the masts and 

 spars of the Chinese junks, and when spht are the mater- 

 ial of the sails, while the rigging is made from the fibres. 

 Indeed, stems of different kinds and sizes serve from 

 walking canes and sticks for supporting plants, up to 

 nearly every purpose for which wr employ scantling. The 

 joints in the larger stems are from one foot to over two 

 feet in length, and from 4 to 12 inches in diameter. These 

 are sometimes nearly solid, while in others the 

 hollow portion is much larger. They are converted into 

 a great variety of receptacles, for solids and liquid, and 

 serve as baskets, boxes, barrels, jugs, etc. Split in various 

 degrees of fineness, the stems afford the material for mats, 

 blinds, screens, etc. ; the fibre makes strong cordage, and 

 is good paper stock. The stems even afford an article 

 of food, the young tender shoots being cooked and eaten. 

 Some of the more tropical Bamboos bear, what is remark- 

 able in grasses, a berry-like fruit. An envelope that sur- 

 rounds the pistil, in some genera, becomes fle.^by as the 

 grain ripens, and in one species is, when matm-e, *' the 



