Vor,. IX. No. 217. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



261 



METHODS OP PLANTING TREES. 



Information in regard to exiienineiits which have been 

 conducted at the Wohurn Fruit Farm of the Duke of Bedford 

 for the purpo.se of ascertaining the effect of planting trees by 

 various methods was given in the A;i)irultural News, Vol. 

 VIII, p. 101. Since this, similar experiments have been 

 commenced at the Botanic Stations in .\ntigua, Dominica, 

 Montserrat, St. Kitts and St. Vincent, and trials are being 

 started at the present time in St. Lucia. An account of 

 these, as far as they have been conducted, will appear 

 in the next volume of the West Indian Jiidletin (Vol. XI, 

 No. 1). In view of their interest, the following additional 

 information is given, most of which is taken from the Nxnlli 

 Report of the Woliurn Erperimenial Fruit Farm, in which 

 the investigations are described. 



In the first few series of experiments at Woburn, the roots 

 of the trees were forced into holes too small for them, without 

 being trimmed or spread out: the earth was then thrown into 

 the hole and stamped down violently. As is pointed out, the 

 chief effect of this violent stamping is to injure the condition 

 of the soil: the other effect of the unorthodox planting is 

 injury to the roots. In all the later trials, these twf) factors 

 have been kept separate. 



The way in which the trees were planted, with ramming, 

 is described in the report in the following words: A few fork- 

 fuls of earth were removed, so as to make a shallow hole; into 

 this the tree was put, with the roots just as they happened to 

 come; the earth was shovelled over them, and rammed with 

 a heavy rammer till the whole was thoroughly puddled, and 

 .shook like a jelly at each stroke. As one of our critics said, 

 it is planting trees gate-post fashion, and we cannot improve 

 on his graphic description of the process; certainly any work- 

 man who had been found planting a tree in that way a few 

 years ago, would have been promptly dismi.ssed, and the tree 

 would have been considered as doomed. 



The planting was done at various times while the trees 

 were in the dormant state, and with various conditions of 

 soils. The trials were carried out at .seventeen stations; this 

 afforded the opportunity for making them in soils of very 

 different kinds. 



As regards the effect of ramming on the length of new 

 wood formed, it was found that the number of cases where this 

 produced good results was from four to six-and-a-half times 

 greater than where its influence appeared to do harm. 



Observations on the effect on the stoutness of new wood 

 formed showed that, of thirty-five pairs of trees that were 

 examined, there were onlj' four cases where the un rammed 

 plant made stouter growth than the rammed tree near it. 



The effect of ramming on the loot formation was that 

 the roots showed nearly the same excess of growth as the 

 branches, and photographs are given which show unmistak- 

 ably the much greater branching of the roots that has taken 

 place in the rammed trees. 



In relation to the effect on the total growth, that is the 

 increase in weight of the whole tree, plants lifted at the end 

 of three years showed an average of 114 per cent, in favour 

 ■of the rammed trees. Later experiments with bush fruits 

 have confirmed this, except apparently in ' the case of rasp- 

 berries; and even with the.se, a superioj ity was shown by the 

 rammed plants when the suckers from the roots were not 

 taken into consideration. It is easy to understand that the 

 hardened condition of the soil interfered with the throwing 

 up of these suckers. 



No definite information is available as yet, as to the effect 

 on the crops of fruit produced by the trees, for none of them 

 have been allowed to form fruit during the first and second 

 seasons, in order that there may be no interference, through 

 this cause, with the growth. Indicatipns have been obtained, 

 however, that the period of fruit-bearing arrives earlier in 

 the case of rammed trees, and that there is a po.ssibility that 

 these will bear heavier crops. Experiments with bush fruits 

 showed, at any rate, that no loss of fruit need be feared, as 

 a consequence of ramming, even during the first few years of 

 fruit-bearing. 



The explanation of the better results that are obtained 

 by rainming, when planting, is stated to be that the more 

 intimate contact of the soil with the roots, resulting from the 

 process, favours the growth of a larger number of new root- 

 lets. As regards the effect of ramming on the water content 

 of the soil, it is thought probable that the alteration in the 

 amount of this has little influence on the results obtained. 



In all experiments of the kind that are conducted, it is 

 important that allowance should be made for the circumstance 

 that increased development cannot be expected to show 

 itself immediately, because this naturally arises as a result 

 of increased root formation consequent on ramming, and 

 . time must be given for these roots to grow and exert their 

 functions. It is in this way that a preliminary period of 

 decreased growth has been noticed: and this appears to have 

 a further effect, even for a few further seasons, in retarding 

 the springing into growth after the dormant season, by 

 a few days. 



A matter of some interest, in relation to the Woburn 

 Experiment.s, is contained in the Gardeners' Chronicle for 

 July 2, 1910, where a description is given of a visit by 

 a party, consisting of members of the Council and the 

 Scientific and Fruit Committee of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, to the Experimental Fruit Farm at Ridgmont, where 

 some of the trials have been undertaken. This contains the 

 following pas.sage: So convinced are the experimenters at 

 Woburn of the lack of necessity for the care usually taken in 

 planting, and of the good results of ramming, that they will 

 not tolerate upon the place a cultivator who plants in the 

 ordinary way. 



THE BUDDING OF THE EGG PLANT. 

 The following note, prepared by Mr. A. J. Brookes, 

 Ufficer-in-charge of the Dominica Agricultural School, 

 has been received through the Curator of the Domin- 

 ica Botanic Station : — 



One of the best cultivated varieties of the egg plant 

 {Solanum Mdonyena) is that known as 'Henderson's New 

 York Spineless '. This plant, when grown on its own roots, 

 will bear an average of eight to ten marketable fruits. 



An allied form, Solanum torvum, is to be found growing 

 wild in mo.st of the West Indian Islands. This common 

 weed forms an excellent stock upon which the more delicate 

 variety above mentioned may be grown. If this stock is 

 budded in the same way as for the orange, the buds will be 

 found to take more readily than in the case of tongue or cleft 

 grafting. Plants of the New York Spineless variety, when 

 treated in this way, bear from twenty to thirty marketable 

 fruits in a season. 



The fruits obtained by the pupils of the Dominica Agri- 

 cultural School, by carrying out this method of propagation, 

 sell readily at '2d. each in the local market. 



