l82 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



few days. Being busy, they remained there several weeks, 

 and when he finally took them up for grafting, he was sur- 

 prised to find little roots just starting from the lower ends. 

 He at once set them out about twenty feet apart, where they 

 took root, made a rapid growth, and long ago their branches 

 met, the bodies near the ground being over one foot in diam- 

 eter. While not very productive, owing to the variety not 

 being adapted this far South, these trees have been models 

 of health and vigor, though for many years they have stood 

 in the sod. The two hundred trees I was induced to plant 

 from the conduct of these two were set with very long roots, 

 and after growing moderately well for several years, finally 

 assumed such a dwarf habit, though given the best of culture 

 and, being between rows of pear trees, that they were dug up 

 and thrown out. I had then found out the value of root- 

 pruning, and was not surprised to see perfectly flat, lateral 

 and surface root systems on them all, not one having struck a 

 single tap-root. That is plainly the cause of the dwarf habit 

 all apple trees assume in the far South, and it is possible that 

 some of the southern winter varieties named in Prof. Mil- 

 liard's excellent article may be adapted even here, if closely 

 root pruned when planted. This is one fruit, however, that 

 should be planted in the valleys all over Texas and the South. 

 It blooms late, is never caught by frost, and, like the pear, 

 loves a moist location. It is hard to hurt an apple tree with 

 water, and its general failure to do well in the far South is 

 due, next to leaving long roots, more to planting on high, 

 dry locations than anything else. In the valley near the 

 Hannah Springs, at Lampasas, are a dozen or more thrifty 

 apple trees, planted nobody knows just when, and being on 

 the Springs property, were turned out on the common fifteen 

 years ago. They have never failed a single crop during that 

 time, as I was informed by a resident who had known of 

 them that long, and when I saw them recently, every tree 

 was overloaded, but looking fresh and green. The remark- 

 able point about those trees was that not a sign of a worm or 

 insect could be found upon either fruit or leaves. Unfortu- 

 nately, while there are plainly six varieties, nobody knows 



