PLANTING 43 



roots are dependent more on the nutrient stored in the plant than 

 on that obtained from outside, the root-environment is of sub- 

 sidiary importance ; and if it is such as to increase the number 

 of roots formed as ramming does by keeping the roots wet 

 then the drain on the tree will be increased, and the effect of this 

 drain on the branch-growth should be apparent. This is actually 

 what is noticed in the case of rammed trees : with n plots of 

 trees (IX, 28), where the excess of growth of the rammed trees 

 over the unrammed ones amounted to 94 per cent, at the end 

 of the first season, the excess, when measured in the previous 

 'July, amounted to only 55 per cent., and on June I to only 

 7 per cent., at which date, indeed, but for the exceptional values 

 in the case of one plot, it would actually have shown a deficit. 

 When the leaf formation was taken as the criterion of vigour, 

 such a deficit was always observed during the first season (V, 66). 

 Thus the beneficial effect of ramming does not show itself at 

 once, and, in fact, does not show itself fully till the second season 

 after planting, as the results quoted above (p. 32) have already 

 established. 



Those who give but a partial adhesion to ramming, whilst 

 admitting its efficiency in fairly light soils, consider it as in- 

 applicable to heavy ones. This is certainly a mistake ; for if 

 ramming is beneficial, the benefit must be greater, according as 

 the effect on the soil is greater. In a light sandy soil where all 

 effects of ramming would disappear before the trees started into 

 growth, the result of the ramming must be nil, as it was found 

 to be at Millbrook, where the soil is of such a character. On 

 the other hand, the good results obtained elsewhere embraced 

 numerous instances where the soil was of a very heavy character, 

 as, indeed, it is at the Fruit Farm itself, the formation there being 

 that of the Oxford clay. Only in one case which has occurred in 

 subsequent years has the effect of ramming been found to fail, 

 and that was on the London clay; the result there was that 

 sulphuretted hydrogen -developed in the rammed soil, and killed 

 the trees. Fortunately the London clay is not a formation 

 which would be selected by a planter for fruit-growing. 



