The Story-Book of the Fields 



The deep root which is so advantageous for 

 utilising the lower layers of the soil may 

 occasionally become a nuisance. If a tree 

 has to be transplanted, the long tap root will 

 cause the operation to be difficult and risky. 

 There must be a deep excavation to remove 

 it and also to replant it, and care must be 

 taken not to injure the root ; for it is the 

 only one, and if it does not take the plant 

 will die. It would be better for the tree to 

 have fasciculated roots, not reaching to a 

 great depth. It would then be easily re- 

 moved, and if some roots were destroyed by 

 the operation there would be enough of them 

 left whole to ensure success in transplant- 

 ing. 



This result may be obtained ; it is easy 

 to deprive the tree of its tap root and to give 

 it, not a regular bunch of equal roots but a 

 much branched and shallow root, offering all 

 the advantages of the fasciculated root — 

 though not its form. In the nurseries where 

 the young trees spend a few years before 

 being transplanted, when they are two years 

 old the principal root, which would become 

 the tap root, is cut off by the spade, and the 

 remaining stump branches out horizontally 

 without increasing its depth. Sometimes 



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