56 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND THE FARMER : 



of the tree is largely determined by the manner and rate ot its 

 recovery after the shift. 



Apple trees worked on the Broad-leaved English Paradise 

 stock have been selected for this investigation. A plantation 

 of such trees, one to three years old from the graft, was estab- 

 lished in 1920, the trees being grouped into permanent and 

 temporary sets. The temporary trees are to provide material 

 for direct observation of root growth. There are 150 of these 

 in aU, which it is proposed to lift and examine at the rate of 

 30 a year. The planting of the trees has been so arranged that 

 the different annual stages in the development of the root -system 

 can be followed in detail without disturbing the permanent 

 trees. The latter, of which there are 150 also, are to serve to 

 indicate the nature of the correlation between the growth of 

 the root and that of the branch system of the tree. Shoot - 

 growth in relation to root -growth will thus be followed stage 

 by stage. Concurrently with these trials in open ground, two 

 somewhat similar trials were conducted with smaller nvunbers of 

 trees in pots, one group being planted in sand and the other 

 grown in water. 



As the experiment has not yet concluded its second year, 

 the main results so far obtained are limited, of course, to the 

 question of the effect of treatment of the root-system at the 

 time of planting. It should be explained that it is a generally 

 recognised maxim amongst fruit-growers that when a tree is 

 transplanted great care should be exercised to ensure that its 

 root -system — which is the source of food supply from the soil to 

 the tree — is damaged as little as possible, and that the fibrous 

 roots are preserved. Clearly this is a point of practical import- 

 ance, for the existing belief implies a great expenditure of time 

 and labour in lifting, packing and planting trees. The results 

 of the Long Ashton experiments show conclusively that in the 

 case of trees worked on freely-rooting types of apple stocks, 

 such a measure of care in the treatment of the root is unnecessary, 

 at any rate under conditions approximating to those at Long 

 Ashton; for the existing root -system will play practically no 

 part in the further growth of the transplanted tree, which will 

 develop a new root -system independent of the old. In the 

 experiments, the root-stocks, before being transplanted, were 

 treated in various ways. With some, great care was exercised, 

 according to established custom, in retaining as much fibre as 

 possible; in others, all fine fibrous roots were removed; in 

 others, all fine fibres and also all the coarser lateral roots were 

 removed, leaving only the central stump. The results showed 

 that in all cases of the trees grown in the Long Ashton soil, 



