DWARFING TREES ON THEIR OWN ROOTS. l6/ 



five feet high. Being alongside of the road, the whole row 

 has been kept perfectly clean on one side all the time, and 

 half the row, including the two latter, have had constant 

 clean culture on both sides, being in the center of an avenue. 

 None have ever been plowed. The two smaller trees, more- 

 over, have had annual dressings of cotton-seed meal and 

 ashes to make them grow, and the smallest has had several 

 dressings of thirty pounds of the meal. Now, if I had not 

 posted my readers half-way already, I would wager that not 

 one could tell the reason of this wonderful disparity in 

 size. Perhaps they will not believe me when I tell them, but 

 it was simply a case of too much root. The first year those 

 two cuttings failed to grow and, as the others had all done 

 well, I concluded to plant two extra fine trees in extra fine 

 style, and make them keep up with the procession. So I went 

 over to Lamarque, where some young trees were growing, 

 and, selecting two, cut back the bodies, that were two and 

 one-half to three inches in diameter, to six feet, and preceded 

 to dig. Like most people now, I had unlimited faith in the 

 efficacy of long roots, and started the first at six feet from the 

 tree. We all worked manfully spading out the soil, to pre- 

 serve every root that was possible, and we finally got that 

 tree out in fine shape, leaving a twelve-foot hole and the bot- 

 tom well watered with sweat. This is now the smaller of the 

 two. But, finding the job more than we bargained for, we 

 compromised on a three-foot root system for the other, and 

 soon had it out also. I forgot to say that the trees had both 

 been transplanted once before, and had what I thought was a 

 most beautiful lot of roots. Well, on reaching home, being 

 all tired out and not wishing to slight the work, the replant- 

 ing was put of until the next day, when we went at it afresh, 

 and at last finished just the nicest transplanting job ever 

 done, the holes being nearly two feet deep, top soil thrown to 

 one side, carefully beat up and pulverized before filling in to 

 one foot, then more fine soil hauled and worked in carefully 

 among the roots, after the most approved fashion now laid 

 down in all the books. The work at last completed, I called 

 my wife to see what a beautiful job we had made, with the 



