GERMINATION 143 



The half-germinated seeds are then put into the 

 ground one by one in an open field, each at the exact 

 spot the young plant is to occupy. 



"Stratification offers still another advantage. 

 Fruit trees as well as other trees have a stout tap- 

 root which bores vertically into the ground to a con- 

 siderable depth and gives a good deal of trouble if 

 transplanting is undertaken. To alter this tap-root 

 into a root not growing so deep, but branching hori- 

 zontally, would be decidedly advantageous. In 

 speaking of the root we saw what the nursery-man 

 does to obtain this result. He passes the sharp edge 

 of his spade under the base of each tree-trunk so as 

 to sever the tap-roots of his young plantations. In 

 stratification the method is much simpler and suc- 

 cess surer. With his thumb-nail the gardener nips 

 off the tip of the tender radicle before the final plant- 

 ing is done. That is all. Deprived of its growing 

 end the young root henceforth branches out hori- 

 zontally instead of descending vertically." 



