8 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



with short roots, for which he will cheerfully take half price. 

 But to return to our immediate forefathers and their doings 

 in the fields of horticulture. Naturally, in very dry seasons 

 or in case of neglected trees, set with large tops, the tangled 

 mass of feeble, fibrous roots would fail to take hold in the 

 soil, and, exhausted by evaporation from the tops, would die. 

 Then at once went up the cry, "More root !" Why not? 

 Taught to believe that roots were absolutely necessary, nat- 

 urally the planter would conclude, the more the better, just as 

 is taught in all the books to-day ; and indeed, so firmly is it 

 fixed in the minds of many of our most eminent fruit grow- 

 ers that, though earnestly requested to do so, they will not 

 even plant a single close root-pruned tree as an experiment. 

 This has for several years been my general experience, in try- 

 ing to inaugurate this all-important reform. And yet it is 

 absolutely the foundation of all permanent success in the 

 orchards of the future. We have now got to a point where a 

 small one-year tree is considered worthless, and it is well- 

 nigh impossible to sell a tree that has not been transplanted 

 once, and oftener twice, to give it plenty of roots, and when 

 such trees are planted, with all their matted fibrous roots, the 

 doom of that orchard is sealed, whether it be with blight and 

 scab in the pear and apple, yellows in the peach, or black- 

 knot and root-tumor in the plum and peach. Such orchards 

 are bound to fail early, become diseased, and die. And so, in 

 tracing the probable course and progress of horticulture in 

 this country from the earliest times down until now, we find 

 that of necessity, commencing with seedlings and root-grafts 

 (practically my method), its whole history has been a descent 

 from health, longevity and productiveness in the beginning, 

 as history and tradition both prove, down to disease, early 

 decay and unfruitfulness at the present time, and in an exact 

 and direct ratio to the increased quantity of roots left on, 

 and age of the trees when set. The older the tree and the 

 more root, the worse for the tree ever afterwards. Just how 

 I happened to discover this important truth will be told in 

 the next chapter. 



