EFFECT OF ROOT-PRUNING. 43 



food, and the extremities of the roots, through their exten- 

 sion, seek their food from a distance. Now, if there were 

 any way whereby we could bring these fibrous roots back 

 again, and make them occupy the whole of the soil; keep 

 them from striking off in random directions, and make them 

 fill the soil more completely, so that a large portion of the 

 soil will be filled, then we can extract the utmost amount of 

 the fertilizing power contained in that soil which the plant is 

 capable of appropriating. This, I think, can be done. 



Pomologists have known for a long time that root-pruning 

 increases the yield of apple-trees, and increases the area 

 covered by the roots. I have here the roots of two apple- 

 trees, — one root pruned this last spring, the other not pruned. 

 In my left hand I hold a root showing the efiect of root- 

 pruning; in my right hand, a root which shows the natural 

 growth. AVhen you cut off the root of a tree, immediately 

 from the cut surface are put off small fibrous roots, and when 

 you remember that it is only the small, young roots which 

 take nutriment, you can see how immensely you add to the 

 power of the plant to take nutriment from the soil by prun- 

 ing, and thus increasing the number of the fibrous roots. 

 You take a corn-plant and divide the root, and what happens ? 

 In less than twelve hours you will find that that root has 

 commenced to throw out small roots which are almost 

 innumerable. These roots seek out the nutriment in the 

 land, and grow rapidly. The growth of the leaf of the corn- 

 plant is stated to be about five inches in twenty-four hours, 

 and it is probable that for each inch of the growth of the leaf 

 there is a growth of several inches of these small fibrous 

 feeding roots, which occupy so many of the interspaces of 

 the soil, and take so much nutriment from it. Now, if we 

 can change the roots nearest the plant from those coarse roots 

 into innumerable small roots, we are giving that plant greater 

 command over the fertility of the soil near the plant. In 

 other words, we carry the roots to the chemicals, as well as 

 carry the chemicals to the roots. Then, in a short time, if we 

 cut the roots at a further distance from the plant, other fibrous 

 roots are caused to develop, and these send out fresh fibres, and 

 the plant has still greater control over the fertility in the soil. 



Now, there is another point here, which is a physiological 



