52 SCIENCE AND FRUIT GROWING 



Relative weight of trees. 



Mean. 



Worked above, and kept 1 above . 100 100 100 



, but put l below . 97 106 102 



below, and kept l below . 100 93 97 



From which it must be concluded that these different methods 

 of procedure are without any appreciable effect on the results 

 obtained. 



PLANTING TREES IN SAND, ETC. 



The advantage generally following the ramming of a tree on 

 planting, due to the intimate contact thus obtained between 

 the roots and the soil, led to attempts to ascertain whether 

 similar, or better, results could not be obtained by other means. 

 The effect of plastering the roots before planting with a mixture 

 of clay, cowdung and plaster of Paris was tried, but proved to 

 be detrimental. The effect of imbedding the roots in fine sand 

 was then examined. 



It had been ascertained that when trees are grown in pots 

 containing sand and artificial nutrients, instead of earth, a 

 remarkably exuberant root-production occurs during the first 

 season, the weight of new roots amounting to twelve times that 

 of those from earth-grown trees (IX, 32), though this superiority 

 is not maintained in subsequent years, and, even from the first, 

 there is no corresponding superiority in branch-formation; 

 indeed, the latter is always below that of the earth-grown trees, 

 to the extent of about 30 per cent. Such a fact, it should 

 be noticed, must have an important bearing on the general 

 question of the nutrition of plants : the great root-development 

 unaccompanied by any corresponding branch-growth, implies 

 that the tree requires some form of nourishment, or some 

 substance necessary for the assimilation of the nourishment 

 present, which soil contains, but which sand with artificial 

 fertilisers does not, and the abnormal root-development of the 

 sand-grown trees may be regarded as an effort on the part 

 of the tree to obtain that which it is in need of, this effort 

 probably being aided by the high water-content which must be 

 maintained in the sand to prevent it from drying up. It appeared 

 possible that advantage might be taken of this excessive root- 

 development by planting trees in holes in the ground filled with 



1 After transplantation. 



