112 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



When you get the piece root trees you get a sort of one-sided 

 root. A tree that is one-sided does not have the tap root 

 formation, so this is a tree grown upon the whole roots, and 

 a great deal better tree. 



Here is a tree that is a little different. This tree is drier. 

 It has been out of the ground a good while and it has dried a 

 good deal, hasn't so much of a root. Now there is a tree that 

 would want different treatment. I should prune that tree as 

 lightly as possible, just clipping off the ends so as to save as 

 much of the root as possible, just simply clipping these lacerated 

 ends so we may get readily a new formation of growth from 

 these roots. That is all I prune this for, to get a new fresh 

 cut from the bottom of the root in order to start out a new 

 system of root growth. Because of the absence of the fibrous 

 roots there would be a question as to whether this tree would 

 pull through or not, hence in order to insure the growth I 

 would leave a little more. Now the root has the entire oppor- 

 tunity of forcing out a few buds, and if about three or four buds 

 are forced out it will make a splendid tree, but if the whole 

 top was left on nine times out of ten that tree would die because 

 the root could not support so much top as there was on the tree. 

 So these are points that one needs to take into account in receiv- 

 ing a lot of trees, in the matter of pruning, in order to insure 

 the growth of every tree. 



These trees illustrate the difference between a whole root 

 tree and a piece root tree. There may not always be quite so 

 much difference as this, but a great deal of the time the piece 

 root tree will have a very light root formation, and I don't like 

 them on that account. I would rather give fifty cents for that 

 whole root tree than to pay ten cents for this piece root one. 

 That would be my judgment as between the value of those two 

 types of trees propagated as they are. 



Now just a few points on how to prune after the trees have 

 been set. I have on my farm at the present time about 10,000 

 apple trees and I am heading them all down within as near as 

 I can two and one-half to three feet of the ground, which are 

 really low-headed trees. For the first four years after an apple 

 tree has been set there is very little pruning to do; simply take 

 out a cross branch. If we begin to prune these young trees 

 from the time we set them out, we are going to push the tree 



