350 



THE FARMER AT HOME. 



heavy roller presses the roots and the earth together in their proper 

 position, when vegetation goes on again, and thus, in a measure, pre- 

 vents what L termed winter killing. They are variously made of 

 wood, stone, and iron. Those of iron are most durable ; those of 

 stone may occasionally become impaired by the loss of fragments where 

 there had been old seams ; and those of wood are always liable to 

 decay. The one represented in the cut is entirely of iron, except the 



ROLLER. 



tongue and box, which are of wood. Twenty four inches in diameter 

 is a good size ; but are sometimes six inches larger, and then again 

 six inches smaller. The rollers are in separate sections, each one 

 foot long, placed on a wrought iron arbor on which they turn indepen- 

 dently of each other, thus turning without much friction, and leaving 

 the ground smooth. The box is attached to receive stones, either to 

 increase the weight of the implement, or that such as are casually 

 found on the surface may be removed. Rollers are made of any size 

 or weight desired ; and none can be obtained better than those man- 

 ufactured by A. B. Allen and Company, New- York. 



ROOT, The root is that part of a plant by which it attaches 

 itself to the soil in which it grows, or to the substance on which it 

 feeds, and is the principal organ of nutrition. The roots by which 

 trees and shrubs are supported, appear to be merely elongations ol 

 their stems, subdivided into numerous branches, and terminating in 

 minute radicles, or absorbents. These extremities resemble the fibrous 

 roots of grasses, and are subservient to precisely the same ends, for the 

 main body as well as its large branches, serve only to convey towards 

 the "eaf the nourishment which its minute extremities have derived from 



