92 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



readily absorbed through the bark of young shoots and 

 through the thin walled cells at the cut end. This starts 

 growth and activity. But before growth can proceed to any 

 appreciable extent, the cutting must make provision for a 

 specialized absorbing surface in the soil. This is done by 

 throwing out at first a set of delicate multiplying cells from 

 the layer of young, growing and dividing cells just beneath 

 the bark at the lower end. This white ring of protruding 

 cells is known technically as the ''callus." Nurserymen 

 usually assist cuttings to form this callus early in the season, 

 and before placing them in the nursery row, so that root 

 growth may be sure to precede leaf growth, as leaf growth 

 before the initial steps of root formation take place usually 

 proves fatal to the cutting. 



From this callus the young rootlets proceed rapidly, and 

 as they operate in an area so near the cutting, it is led with 

 less effort and more rapidly by a few roots than it could be 

 by a greater number located farther away. Moreover, it is 

 learned from a rooted cutting, that it forms a set of roots 

 that take a direction in the soil similar to those of a seedling 

 of the same variety ; or, in other words, forms its roots, both 

 of direction and penetration into the soil, and in a uniform 

 radiation about the trunk, compatible with its nature and 

 habits of growth. 



Some authorities state that a cutting makes a "duck- 

 footed" set of roots. Observation over a wide field of cut- 

 tings, and of latitude and climate in which they have been 

 grown, to my mind thoroughly disproves any such statement. 

 I have seen Le Conte pear cuttings grown upon the heaviest 

 clay subsoils of the coast region, near Galveston, Texas, that 

 had sent down vertical roots, penetrating the soil over four 

 feet the first season. Some tests, made in a small way with 

 nursery trees and stock, gave results conclusive enough to 

 show that an important subject had been undertaken, and 

 that it would justify a test on a larger scale. In April, 1890, 

 170 Reeves Favorite peach trees, budded on Japan stock, 

 ninety-five Ben Davis and ninety-five Red Astrachan apple 

 trees all budded, maiden trees were procured for this test. 



