94 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



The apples showed about the same growth in both cases ; 

 no one could have told which was which by fall without the 

 map. The examinations of the roots during the summer de- 

 veloped some interesting facts. The first thing noticed on 

 removing the trees from the soil was that the old roots had 

 retained all their malformations, twistings and the horizontal 

 position they had acquired some way in the nursery or in 

 packing. At least they were just the same as they would 

 have been if cut by the most careful planters. The several 

 figures bring out this feature very forcibly. Nearly all the 

 young feeding roots grew from the tip ends of the old roots, 

 leaving them bare, even when over a foot long. Only an 

 occasional new lateral root was found. This threw all the 

 absorbing surface some distance from the trunk. Plant phy- 

 siology gives us a general law which states that the farther 

 sap has to travel, and the more devious its path of transfer 

 from the root absorbents (root hairs) to the leaves, the less 

 the growth and vigor of that plant in a given period of time. 

 Sap is retarded in its circulation, and wood formation cannot 

 go on as rapidly as in cases where the sap travels short, direct 

 paths. In all young trees, wood is the first and indispensible 

 product of growth to form a proper basis for future fruitful- 

 ness. After a tree is well developed and supplied with 

 strong, stocky branches, it is then time to retard the sap flow 

 and cause fruit buds to form. 



In the root-pruned trees, the young rootlets sprang as 

 readily from the large circle of cambium at the ends of the 

 short root stubs as from the ends of the longer roots. They 

 came out, too, in greater numbers than on the old roots on 

 unpruned trees, the ratio being about ten to three. These 

 young roots clustered close about the trunk of the tree, mak- 

 ing the least possible distance for the sap to travel. It 

 seemed evident, also, that new roots developed much faster 

 where the sap traveled short distances. The cut ends by fall 

 had in most cases completely healed over, leaving no place 

 for rot to start. 



Another very important feature in the growth of young 

 rootlets noted, is that those on the unpruned roots took 



