INIJIA.NA JloUTIOlTI/riTKAl, SOCIETY. ^iOo 



to affect tlicni at all. I noticpcl that these roots avouUI go four or tive 

 feet before they made a single sideroot. I have been asked what I think 

 of this idea of total root pruning. It is just as much wrong as to put the 

 tree in the ground with uo pruning at all. In your soil four or fave digs 

 with a .';pade is deep enough for a tree. Take a little apple tree with the 

 roots put into the bottom of the hole, and generally you find them putting 

 fine dirt arouudthem, too. We leave a tap root and pound the dirt in 

 with a mall to keep the wind from blowing the trees over. You kuow 

 in our country wo have lots of wind, and wo must have our trees in solidly 

 or they will blow around. 



President Stevens: Do you prefer this to staking the trees? 



That is a fair question. When we cut off all of the roots the tree is 

 hard to keep steady against the Avind. The side feeding roots do not 

 come in until the second year: on tiie other hand Avhen you leave the 

 roots three inches long j^ou get the double eft'ect. I do not like to stake 

 a tree. My experience is that when we put a tree pruned like that into 

 the ground and pound the dirt hard around it, it is exactly like a boy 

 starting up under hard conditions. Take a poor boy thrown out upon the 

 world. His father can't assist liini. His father is a very poor man. and 

 is working hard to keep his family and can't even pay the mortgage. 

 His mother tells him that she would gladly help him. but the other chd- 

 dren have to be brought up, and there is no help for him. That boy takes 

 off his coat and knuckles down and makes a man of himself. He is 

 worth two men of the kind that their fathers put their hands in their 

 pockets, and hands him the money to spend, or the boy that has his 

 mother to intercede and beg for liim if his father is not willing to furnish 

 the cash. Now the tree that I liave l)een talking about and the method 

 by which I plant it is in most respects like the boy that has to shift for 

 himself. The tree without roots follows the line of least resistance, 

 and when it establishes itself in that way it seems to throw out side- 

 roots and makes trees as we would have them made. I have found that I 

 get a better rooted tree by cutting the roots off. When I planted my 

 first trees in this way I didn't see how on earth they would live, but 

 somehow or other they persist in living. You couldn't kill them. I dug 

 up one of the trees and I was astonished to see what a strong root 

 growth that tree had made. I have seen men go out of meetings like this 

 and throw their shoulders back, and stick their thumbs in their armpits, 

 and say, '"What a big man I am." I hope I am not of this class. I 

 think our distinguished men have spent too much time in tolling us to 

 prune and spray and how to take care of that part of the tree that is 

 above ground. Is there any way to improve the root growth, and make 

 the part of the tree that is above ground do the work it should".'' Why 

 do we cut back the top? Why do some set the tree just as it comes 

 from the nui'sery? The reason I cut the top back is because there are too 



