124 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



of which often injures the slender fibrous portions, which 

 it is desirable to preserve in transplanting. Sandy soils 

 and sandy loams produce the very best roots, most evenly 

 distributed, and also most easily preserved and removed 

 when the trees are dug from the earth. 



Much may be done by the intelligent cultivator, in any 

 kind of land, to make good roots by proper treatment of 

 his soil and trees. A thorough preparation of the ground, 

 and disintegration of the soil, will conduce to this result ; 

 and thorough culture will maintain the good condition 

 thus produced. Frequent transplanting will encourage 

 the production of new roots from the cut ends of those 

 that were ruptured in digging, and these will be within 

 reach at the next removal. When taking up young trees, 

 or when setting out seedlings in the nursery rows, the tap 

 roots, and indeed all long straggling roots, should be cut 

 back, with a view to producing the same result. When 

 trees have remained for three or four years in the nursery 

 rows, the fibres will have extended so far in search of 

 food and moisture, that in digging them, the best portions 

 of the roots will be left in the ground, and the young 

 trees will suffer upon being transplanted in this mutilated 

 condition. Such should be root pruned the season pre- 

 vious to their removal. This process is performed by re- 

 moving the earth on either side of the row, until the 

 roots are exposed, when they are cut off at from ten inches 

 to a foot, from the tree, and the earth replaced upon them, 

 the object being the formation of new fibres that -shall be 

 within the reach of the spade when they come to be dug 

 for the orchard. Another plan for root pruning is, to use 

 a very sharp spade, which is set down and pressed deeply 



