HOW I DISCOVERED CLOSE ROOT-PRUNING. 79 



of years that if Prof. T. L. Brunk, then of our Texas A. and 

 M. College, had not, on a visit of several days to my home, 

 urged me so earnestly once more to bring the subject before 

 the public in the Southern Horticultural Journal, of which he 

 was the editor, and also in Farm and Ranch, it might have 

 rested until now. He saw the philosophy of the whole thing 

 at a glance when I pointed it out, and showed him the trees, 

 and afterwards, when connected with the Experiment Station 

 at Washington, he made the very exhaustive experiments, an 

 account of which is elsewhere in this volume. Had not per- 

 sonal and political motives succeeded in ousting him from 

 Washington shortly afterwards, this most enthusiastic and 

 progressive master of horticulture would, I feel sure, long 

 ago have succeeded in demonstrating, in the public position 

 he held near the capitol, the utility and vast superiority of 

 the close root-pruning over the long-rooted method. 



