182 THE NUT CULTURIST. 



perhaps, has misled many persons to believe that certain 

 kinds of trees, like the hickories, could not be moved at 

 all, or at least not with any assurance of being made to 

 live. This idea has become so prevalent among inex- 

 perienced cultivators, and, I regret to add, often reiter- 

 ated by theorists, that it has discouraged many who 

 otherwise would have raised and planted nut trees in 

 preference to other kinds. 



Admitting that it is the general habit of most kinds 

 of forest trees to produce deeply penetrating taproots, 

 when grown from seed, it proves nothing more than 

 that these parts may be of some importance to the plants 

 while they are young, and under natural conditions, yet 

 they are not absolutely necessary, and, at most, are only 

 temporary organs, like the tails of tadpoles, always dis- 

 appearing with maturity. 



Any one at all observing, and having had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining limited or extended areas of forest 

 trees thrown over by hurricanes, must have noticed that 

 no tree of any considerable size and age possessed a tap- 

 root, but had been for years kept in its upright position 

 by lateral brace-roots, and through these it had also 

 obtained nutriment from the surface soil. Some of my 

 correspondents in the South have expressed their sur- 

 prise at not finding any trace of the original central 

 roots on old pecan trees, when blown over by severe 

 wind storms. But it is the same everywhere with forest 

 trees and where the soil is naturally loose and moist : 

 the principal or supporting roots spread out widely and 

 remain near the surface, and the central roots- or taproots 

 disappear much earlier than in dry soils. 



In multiplying trees under artificial conditions, we 

 remove the taproots, not only for convenience in trans- 

 planting, but also to hasten and increase the production 

 of surface lateral roots, and more than this, we lessen 

 the years of luxuriant sterility, securing earlier fruit- 



