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In cultivating the grove with the plow there is a constant tendency 

 of the soil to pile up around the trunk of the tree. This should be 

 watched, and if the crown of the lateral surface roots is a half inch 

 below the surface, from this or from deep planting, the soil should be 

 drawn from around the trunk till the upper sides of these roots are 

 brought to the top of the ground. If the upper parts of these roots 

 are left bare, for one or two inches, where trees are five or six years 

 old, and for a greater distance where the trees are older, these roots 

 develop very rapidly and not only furnish stout braces to the trunk, 

 but great arteries for conveying life and food from the soil. This 

 point is so little understood and attended to by many cultivators, that 

 it may be well to state further. This development of the crown roots 

 is nature's plan when it is not interfered with. Whoever will visit 

 and examine a natural forest, whether of orange or other trees, will 

 find the top of the crown roots from one to several inches above the 

 ground and running in many instances, as great braces, well up the 

 trunk of the tree. This development of the crown, is slow at first, but 

 increases in proportion as the upper surface of the roots lift themselves 

 above the surface of the ground. This development can be hastened 

 by taking away the earth from above the roots for a short distance 

 from the tree, as mentioned above. The principle is the same as that 

 adopted for the development of the bulb of the onion by taking the 

 earth from around it. The root of the plant, being more porous than 

 the stem, parts more readily with its moisture at the point where it is 

 exposed, and hence the thickened sap lodges more readily at that point, 

 and so hardens into wood and increases the growth. As the upward 

 circulation passes only through the new or sap wood, this enlarged 

 base furnishes, at the very seat of life and strength, new and increased 

 capacity to the tree. 



