ROOT PRUNING. 203 



my home that was taken up and set out without any roots on; the 

 roots were all cut off; I saw the tree and it was a big-, healthy tree. 



Pres. Underwood: What was the variety? 



Mr. Richardson: It was an apple tree; I have forgotten the var- 

 iety. 



Pres. Underwood: Would you recommed shipping trees in 

 that shape? 



Mr. Richardson: No, I would not. (Laughter). Still I think they 

 would grow better that way. I saw in "Green's Fruit Grower " a 

 statement of an experiment made in Maryland by a man who 

 claimed he cut the roots all off from a tree when it was planted, and 

 cut the top off, in fact, made a broomstick of it, and he claimed that 

 at the end of three years you have a better tree than if you set out 

 the whole thing. 



Prps. Underwood: This all has a bearing on the subject under 

 discussion. The subject is "Small Fruits," and we are discussing- 

 the pruning of the raspberr}^ plant. That was the subject of the 

 last paper, and we do not want to get too far away from our subject 

 this morning. Of course, the subject of drouth and root pruning- 

 will come up later, but I would like, as far as possible, to elaborate 

 the idea as to which is the best way to handle raspberrj'^ and black- 

 berry plants. 



Mr. Bush: I have had good success handling raspberries and 

 blackberries. As soon as I receive the plants I place them in a mud 

 bath, and let them remain in that condition for two or three days,and 

 then put them in the place where I want them to grow, and in that 

 way I save a large proportion. 



Judge L. R. Moyer: I read a statement by Mr. Meehan, in 

 " Meehan's Monthly," that the small fibrous root is an annual 

 growth, and that it is those that the tree sheds. It is important to 

 save the large ones if the small fibrous roots die annually. 



Pres. Underwood: Can you give us any evidence on that point, 

 or say whether it is correct? 



Mr. Harris: A good many years ago I hired a German to plant 

 my trees for me, and the trees had a good many long roots and a 

 good many fibrous roots. From all the trees he planted he took off 

 those small roots, he said they would die anyway, and those trees 

 he planted did better than those I planted, and wlien I came to ex- 

 amine them I found they had thrown out new roots, fibrous roots, 

 and that the old ones had not grown. 



Mr. Wedge: I would scarcely credit the statement Juge Moyer 

 says he saw in "Meehan's Monthly" unless it refers to the very 

 small feeders. That cannot refer to the ordinary fibrous roots as 

 we get them from the nursery. I think it refers to those micros- 

 copical roots that are almost invisible. 



Mr. Harris: A great many of our trees have none of the small 

 roots. 



Mr. Wedge: There is a great difference in the fibrous roots of our 

 trees. The fibrous roots of the evergreen are large, while those of 

 the apple are very small. 



