76 Principles of Plant Culture. 



development of other growing points farther back. 

 Transplanting or root pruning accomplishes this in the 

 case of roots (Fig. 31). While these operations 

 may not often increase the total number of root-tips, 

 and hence may not enable the plant to take up a greater 

 amount of nourishment, they do cause the development 

 of a more compact root system, which is of great ad- 

 vantage to young plants grown in the seed-bed or nur- 

 sery for subsequent transplanting. jfc ^ 



105. Pricking Off Young Seedlings, i. e., transplant- 

 ing them from the soil in which they grew to other soil, 

 where they have more room, is an important prepara- 

 tion for their final transplanting. They should receive 

 as good care after pricking off as before, with which 

 they soon develop many new rootlets near the base of 

 the stem, that need be little injured in the later re- 

 moval (Fig. 32). 



106. Nursery Trees are Benefited by Transplanting 

 them once or twice before the final planting out, for 

 the reasons named above. 



107. Root Pruning (416 k) is sometimes employed as 

 a substitute for transplanting, and is especially useful 

 to trees that form new branch roots, as the hickory and 

 walnut. In this case, the tap root is cut off a few 

 inches below the surface of the soil the year before 

 transplanting. -/ 



108. The Horizontal Extent of Roots is usually 

 greater than is generally supposed. In upright-grow- 

 ing plants, the area occupied by the roots, as a rule, 

 exceeds that covered by the foliage, while in spreading 

 and trailing plants, the roots are probably not often 



