CHAPTER IV 

 PLANTING (Reports, II, 177; V, 56; IX, i; XV, 20) 



GREAT stress has always been laid by horticulturists on the 

 methods employed in the planting of fruit trees after their 

 removal from the nursery. The numerous experiments on the 

 subject made at the Woburn Farm during fourteen years derive 

 a special interest from the mode of their origin, and their value is 

 enhanced by their not having been obtained in order to estab- 

 lish any preconceived opinions on the subject. They originated 

 in certain plots of ground having been set aside to test the evil 

 results of careless planting, in the expectation that a demonstra- 

 tion would thereby be furnished in confirmation of the current 

 teaching of horticulturists, in which, be it mentioned, those 

 conducting the experiments had implicit belief at the time. 

 The results obtained from these plots, however, belied this 

 teaching, and were consequently set aside as having probably 

 been invalidated by some unknown accidental cause. Two other 

 series of experiments were then made in the hope of securing 

 more acceptable results, and when these also gave similar evi- 

 dence, even of a still more decisive character, they, too, were 

 rejected, and yet other series instituted. It was only when 

 these last confirmed the evidence previously obtained that the 

 observations were accepted as correct, and a search for an 

 explanation was made. Perhaps the experiments were multi- 

 plied beyond the limits necessary for proof, but this was rendered 

 advisable from the rabid character of the criticisms levelled 

 against the conclusions of the previous ten years' work on the sub- 

 ject, which could best be answered by accumulating a weight 

 of evidence sufficient to place the results beyond question. 

 Though the facts observed may contradict " orthodox " teaching, 

 a rational explanation can be offered of them in accordance with 

 present botanical knowledge of the structure, physiology and 

 mode of growth of plants. 



Coming to details : the original roughly planted trees con- 

 sisted of eighteen dwarf apples, representing three different 

 varieties, planted in 1894-5, in ground which had not been 



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