CHAPTER V 



PLANTING (continued) 

 NURSERY STOCK 



IN the treatment of young trees in the nursery, a rough and 

 severe form of root-pruning is practised, with the object of 

 restricting the extension of the roots, and of developing a com- 

 pact root-system consisting mainly of small fibrous rootlets; 

 and experienced planters set much store on a tree being well 

 provided with such rootlets, in order that it may thrive after 

 transplantation. Yet, as has been seen, these rootlets are 

 mostly killed in the transplanting, and are of no importance 

 for the future welfare of the trees. This does not imply, how- 

 ever, that the nurserymen and planters are wrong in their 

 practice : the practice may be correct, but the reasons given for 

 its adoption are erroneous. The rough removal of a tree from the 

 nursery involves serious damage to the roots, whilst the exposure 

 incident on transportation to a distance greatly increases the 

 injury suffered, and, had the roots not been restricted and 

 compacted during the years of early growth, the damage thus 

 caused would hive been much greater. At the same time, 

 though the existing rootlets themselves may be of no value in 

 continuing the life of the tree, the fact that a tree has produced 

 an ample supply of such rootlets in the nursery, is an earnest 

 that it will do so again after transplantation. Hence, the 

 planter is quite right in preferring a tree which is well provided 

 in this respect. 



ROOT-PRUNING 



Injury to roots, when it exceeds certain limits, has, naturally, 

 a disastrous effect on the welfare of the tree. This is well illus- 

 trated by the Woburn experiments on root-pruning. These 

 were undertaken, not with the object of determining how and 

 under what circumstances such an operation might be advisable, 

 but as affording some measure of the check on growth caused 

 by it. The trees examined were apples of the varieties Bramley, 



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