ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 293 



PROTECTING THE ROOTS OF FRUIT-TREES. 



CULTIVATORS are frequently urged in Horticultural papers 

 to cover the roots of the peach-trees with heaps of snow, 

 etc., that they may be retarded in the spring, and escape 

 injury from late frosts upon their blossoms. This direction 

 takes it for granted that the warmth of the ground starts 

 the root, and the root starts the sap, and the sap wakes up 

 the dormant branch. By covering the soil and keeping it 

 back, the whole tree is supposed to be secured. But, 

 unfortunately for this process, the motion of the sap is first 

 in the BRANCHES, and last in the roots. Light and heat, 

 exerted upon the branches for any considerable length of 

 time, produce a high state of excitability ; the sap begins to 

 move toward the bud, its place is supplied by a portion 

 lower down, and so on until the whole column of sap 

 through the trunk is in motion, and last of all in the ROOT. 

 But suppose warm, spring days, with a temperature of from 

 sixty degrees to sixty-five degrees, have produced a vigor 

 ous motion of the sap in the branches and trunk, while the 

 root, (thanks to snow and ice piled over it to keep it 

 frozen), is dormant, what will result? The sap already 

 within the tree will be exhausted, the root will supply 

 none, the light and heat still push on the development 

 of bud and leaf and the tree will exhaust itself and die- 

 We not long since observed a remarkable confirmation oi 

 these reasonings. A gentleman of our acquaintance, in 

 reading these unskilfull directions to cover the peach-tree 

 root, opened trenches about his trees, and filled them with 

 snow, heaping bountifully also all about the trees. The 

 next spring, long after his trees should have been at work, 

 the snow held the root fast ; the buds swelled and burst, 

 lingered, shrivelled and died and the trees too. This 

 might have been prognosticated. There are partial 

 methods of protecting the peach from too early develop 

 ment, but they all have respect to the protection of the 



