Proceedings of tee Farriers' Club. 463 



plow, is tlinist forward, farther and farther from the parent stem. In 

 this way, rootlets and branch rootless, and multiple rootlets, continue 

 to be formed, until every cubic inch of the low seed bed has been 

 provided with a score of open mouths ready to lay hold of any 

 material tliat may be in the soil, and which is adapted to the require- 

 ments of the growing plant. The spongioles of certain kinds of 

 plants will lay hold of course, hard, and rough materials, and appro- 

 priate them to the purposes of the plant, just as goats will subsist on 

 weeds and other rough feed which sheep would refuse. Roots benefit 

 the soil in two ways, by their action in life and their function after 

 death. Thus, clover and the thistle roots pierce a stiff subsoil and 

 by capillary attraction draw up potash, lime, iron, and phosphorus in 

 solution. When the plant dies these substances are nearer the sur- 

 face than they were before, while the decay of the root yields humus. 

 How to promote growth of roots is a consideration of the greatest 

 practical importance to every person who trains a growing vine, or 

 cultivates a tiny flower. The vital fluid, which is to trees and j)lants 

 what blood is to the animal system, enters the circulation through the 

 spongioles of the innumerable radicles which are sent out in quest of 

 such material as the plant requires, to build up the stem and branches, 

 and to develop the fruit. If the earth, therefore, be in such a fine 

 state of pulverization that the tender radicles can spread readily, in 

 every direction, several feet below the surface, the requirements of 

 the growing roots, in a very important respect, will have been met. 

 In many localities nature has done all that any tree or plant may 

 require, as the entire earth, as far down as roots will ever strike, even 

 were they to descend as far as the stem pushes upward, is so porous, 

 mellow and fertile that the tender radicles meet with very little 

 resistance. Such land will require no breaking up with the subsoil 

 plow or spade. On the contrary, where the strata of earth beneath 

 the surface mould is so indurated and stubborn that in dry weather 

 a spade cannot be thrust into it with one effort of the foot, there the 

 • trench plow, the subsoiler, the spade, the pick and the clod cruslier 

 should all be brought into requisition, in preparing the bed for the 

 penetration of the countless radicles that must spring into life, before 

 our palates can be regaled with thewheaten loaf or the luscious fruit. 

 The delicate radicles of fruit-producing plants and trees cannot feed 

 on coarse and rough material. The roots of such plants as are culti- 

 vated for the food they yield, cannot appropriate lumps of earth to 

 the development of the stem and fruit, any more than a bullock. 



