150 



STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



plant a tree as tliey would a post/ clearly pointing out the evil of 

 settinf,^ them too deeply. And the third system might be termed 

 the burying process where the roots are buried a long way below 

 the surface, and the tree, in consequence, is sometimes as effectu- 

 ally killed as if it had previously been a living member of the 

 animal kingdom. 



Koots, in a general classification, are of two kinds. First, the 

 young and tender rootlet, composed entirely of cells, and which 

 are exclusively the feeders of the tree. These are found in the 

 greatest abundance near the surface of the ground, in fact ram- 

 bling about immediately beneath the surface in search of their 

 proper food. The second class of roots are those of one or more 

 years growth, and as their bark becomes in a manner tough, and 

 almost non-porous, and the ligneous tissue of little wood bundles 

 commence to form, they are no longer tree-feeders, but act as 

 supports to preserve the body erect and firm. They certainly 

 serve another useful purpose — that of conveying the food to the 

 main trunk of the tree, and thence throughout its whole structure; 

 so that the gardener, who buries his roots several inches below 

 the surface, robs them of their proper nutriment and debars them 

 from all communication with the atmosphere, hence their untimely 

 death. One of the best illustrations of this fact may be tested in 

 Betting out raspberries, a fruit more particular in its choice of 

 planting than probably any other. Let the doubter of this fact 

 plant two rows side by side, the one merely set on the surface, 

 with the roots covered lightly with soil, the other row planted 

 deeply below the surface. One test of this character I think will 

 prove BuflBcient to show the former method to be much the supe- 

 rior one. I have frequently noticed very old trees killed by 

 merely filling the earth around them, and burying the surface or 

 fibrous roots deeply in the soil. 



Another fruitful source of failure results from the practice of 

 placing fresh organic manures directly in contact with tender 

 young roots. As before stated, roots cannot eat their food like an 

 animal ; it must undergo a chemical change and be converted into 

 a soluble, and then into a volatile state before it can be of use ; so 

 that the proper situation for applying our fertilizers is always on 

 the surface, and not beneath it. And why ? Simply because the 

 action of the rain and frosts disintegrate it, and then in a soluble 

 state it is carried down to the feeders, whence it is taken up into 

 the tree. My principal objection to placing manures in immediate 



