12 AGRICULTURE ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE 



Roots have the power to grow in the direction of 

 moisture and sometimes find and fill up drains 300 feet 

 from a tree. Many towns will not allow certain kinds 

 of trees to stand within 100 feet of a sewer, because 

 their roots find it and fill it up. 



Roots grow faster and make more branches in moist 

 soil than in dry soil. 



The spread of the root is in general about the same 

 as the spread of the branches. The fine ends of the 

 roots (" feeding roots ") are largely found where the 

 drip of rain from the ends of the branches falls to the 

 earth. 



How deep do roots go ? The roots of ordinary crops 

 do not go down more than four feet in humid regions, 

 but in arid regions they may go down twelve feet or 

 more. For this reason an acre of soil in the arid 

 region may be equal to much more than an acre in the 

 humid region, since the roots reach and act on a much 

 larger quantity of soil. 



The roots of trees go so deep that grasses and many 

 legumes may be grown in orchards without interfering 

 with the tree roots. 



Roots may have great length. The roots of a corn 

 plant may have a total length of a quarter of a mile. 

 The entire root system of a large squash vine was found 

 to be over fifteen miles in length. These figures take 

 no account of root hairs. In spite of such growth the 

 root cannot reach enough particles to obtain enough 



