THE ROOT SYSTEMS OF CEREALS. 107 



several of the longer ones. Minor modification? in numbers and length 

 of blanches, etc., occur in different soil types, but they are of varying 

 degrees of distinctness and difficult to describe. In general, it may be 

 stated that where root penetration of oats, wheat, or rye is marked, as in 

 the cases described, the suiface root system, although well developed, 

 i? usually not so extensive nor so profoundly branched as in more aiid 

 regions, w r here the entire system is confined to the surface 1.7 to 3 feet 

 of soil. 



Wheat of the Turkey Red variety was examined in two separate 

 fields adjoining the oats. The soil was of the same type and showed 

 no great variation. In one field, where the crop, pieceded by oats, had 

 been planted about the middle of September, the plants were 3 feet high 

 at harvest, but the yield was reduced because of hail. The roots had a 

 working depth of about 3.6 feet, to which level they were quite abun- 

 dant, while the maximum depth of penetration was 5 feet. In the 

 other field, roots of wheat were examined in one end of a large trench 

 which was dug primarily for the purpose of excavating the roots of red 

 clover, Trifolium pratenge, (p. 138). Here the maximum root penetra- 

 tion was the same as that already recorded, but the working level was 

 about 3 inches deeper. 



The following investigations of the root habits of the smaller cereals 

 in true prairie grassland at Fargo, North Dakota, and at Manhattan, 

 Kansas, are of much interest here. 



Ten Eyck (1899) described the root development of a variety of 

 Scotch Fife wheat planted April 14 and examined August 2 on land at 

 Fargo, North Dakota, that had been cropped 12 years. "Most of the 

 main roots run almost vertically downward, sending out numerous 

 small feeders, w r hich practically occupy the soil to a depth of 4 feet, 

 which was as deep as the sample was taken. I think it is safe to affirm, 

 however, that many roots penetrated a foot or two deeper." It should 

 be added that the water-table, when the sample was excavated, was 

 only 6.5 feet below the surface. He found the roots of oats similar 

 to those of wheat, but "roots are more numerous and a little larger and 

 coarser and extend fully as deep as those of wheat." (The ends of both 

 plants were broken off at 4 feet depth.) The "mat or network of 

 fibrous roots near the surface is much the greater in oats." The oat 

 plants were 109 days old, 3.2 feet high, and the heads fully filled. The 

 soil was a very fertile, deep, black loam underlaid by a compact heavy 

 loam. The following year (1900) he examined wheat at the same 

 station 80 days after planting and found the roots had reached a depth 

 of 3 feet and had a horizontal spread of 9 inches on every side of the 

 plant. 



Shepherd (1905), in reporting root investigations at the same station, 

 states that while root growth of cereals seems to vary considerably 

 during different years, wheat roots reached the normal depth for 



