STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 119 



Mr. Barry — Sometimes it does not form — sometimes they break 

 through the roots. 



Dr. Hull — As long as you have feeders at a distance you will not 

 have a growth near the trunk. I was going to show the advantage 

 of root pruning. 



Mr. Barry — I would like to inquire whether any one here has tested 

 fully the plan of uncovering the roots to retard growth? I have seen 

 it done frequently, and with very good effect. 



Mr. Bliss. In ray neighborhood it was done with one orchard. 

 The tree roots were uncovered for a foot or ten inches deep and left 

 until it was cold, and then filled in with corn cobs, etc., and it 

 produced wonderfully afterwards. I am going to try that practice. 



Dr. Hull — Would not the exposure produce partial conversion to 

 branch growth ? 



Mr. Barry — Yes sir, but it is only a temporary exposure. It is 

 practiced a good deal in England among garden trees, where they are 

 troubled with spring and early auiumn frosts. I know it is practiced 

 regularl}^ there. 



Mr. Humphreys — Dr. Hull's theory may be correct, and yet when 

 there are circumstances that evade our skill at any point, let us pay 

 particular attention to that point. There must be some cause why 

 these long shoots are produced. 



Dr. Hull — There is a good deal of force in a suggestion of Mr. 

 Wior's. In pear growing if you will cut your tree up and it produces 

 a half crop of fruit, and the forces are taken up and used by the 

 fruit, very little is left in store. I have found in such cases that the 

 appearance was that from want of union, the connection was severed 

 as between the top and the roots, and it was for a long time a puzzle 

 to know what that was. 1 am quite satisfied that that was the cause 

 of the loss of many of our pear trees, and not the destruction of the 

 roots. 



Mr. Wier — I am well convinced that the last action of the leaf is 

 to produce root material. The last operation is to produce the 



