6 SECOND THOUSAND QUESTIONS IN AGRICULTURE 



if the tree is able to re-establish its connection with soil-moisture by 

 the growth of new root-hairs. The prevention for such a condition 

 is under-drainage so that there shall be no water standing in the soil. 

 The two-year-old trees were not hit before because there was not rain- 

 fall enough to fill the soil with standing water. 



Root-Action After Transplanting. 



A neighbor, while I was planting some peach trees, said I was not 

 pruning the roots sufficiently. He took a tree and pruned off all the 

 roots and rootlets except three or four of the largest ones, and these 

 he cut back. He said the rootlets would not survive the transplanting, 

 and only served to keep the earth from being packed well about the 

 main roots. Was he right? 



The finer roots and rootlets, like threads and strings, are often 

 worthless, as your neighbor says. They might better be cleared 

 away, but, because of the work required, they are usually allowed to 

 remain. Roots one-eighth of an inch in thickness there is no object 

 in removing, if the planting and earth-pressing about them is being 

 carefully done. Your neighbor is a little too radical, but trees will 

 grow his way if moisture is ample. In our climate and in our soil 

 which favor surface drying more than the humid climate, where this 

 root-docking originated, it is better to retain longer roots in trans- 

 plantingmerely making a new cut at the ends of them as they come 

 from the nursery. This applies to what may be called average moisture 

 conditions at planting. If the conditions of heat and moisture are ideal, and 

 if the rootlets have not dried during transportation, they do not die but 

 may be first to start growth. We once took up a June-bud peach, 

 planted a month before, and found that the first new rootlets were 

 starting from the string-like roots and nothing had put out from the 

 larger ones. 



Treatment of Trees After Submergence. 



A prune orchard on peach root was covered with seepage water 

 some three months and nozv some 500 trees are dead, and the remainder 

 look very badly. What can I do for the remaining trees, what killed 

 the ones that died, and would they have died had they been on myrobalan 

 root? 



The trees were killed by water standing in the soil. The peach is 

 quite subject to such injury. The myrobalan root resists it although 

 we do not know exactly how much submergence it will endure. There 

 is no treatment for trees suffering from standing water except cutting 

 back the top to reduce the evaporation and thus enable the injured 

 roots to re-establish themselves, if their injury has not gone too far. 

 Prevention of injury can be secured by under-drainage of such lands. 



Disinfecting Tree Holes. 



I have blown out about 40 stunted Bartlett pears as the roots and 

 stumps were badly decayed. I desire to replant with Gravenstein apples. 



