BREADTH OF CULTURE. 145 



York, in a report to the American Pomological 

 Society says, "I have just examined with some care 

 the length of the roots of my dwarf pears, which 

 were set out last year on my newly-occupied piece 

 of ground in this village. They were two years 

 from the bud when transplanted, and had received 

 moderately good, but not high or rich culture. I 

 found no difficulty in tracing the roots three and 

 one-half feet from the trees, beyond which the fibers 

 were too small to follow easily through a dry and 

 tenacious soil. They had evidently extended them- 

 selves over four feet, and thus, small and young as 

 the trees were, they had already formed a circle of 

 roots about them eight feet in diameter. I have no 

 doubt that in richer and more porous soil the roots 

 would have run to a greater distance. 



" A most important suggestion is afforded by this 

 fact, which is, the indispensable necessity of great 

 breadth of cidture when applied to young trees. 

 These of which we have spoken were dwarfs, and 

 the quince stocks on which they were grown are 

 generally supposed to confine their roots to a com- 

 paratively small circle; still they had already gained 

 a diameter of nearly twice the height of the tree. 

 The practice, then, of digging circles about the stems, 

 instead of cultivating the whole surface, is compar- 

 atively useless, unless those circles embrace the 

 whole extent of the roots, besides the soil which 

 the roots of the surrounding grass may penetrate. 

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