ROOT-GRAFTED AND BUDDED TREES. 



151 



root is essentially a cutting. Every gardener knows that 

 roots seldom start symmetrically from all sides of the end 

 of a cutting. Fig. 144 (from a photograph) shows young 

 roots springing off from the end of a 

 cutting. All three of them start from 

 nearly a common point. It is a one- 

 sided or unsymmetrical system. Fig. 

 145 shows two root-grafts, drawn from 

 life, as they had grown at the expira- 

 Dn of two months after they were planted 

 in the nursery. They show the same pecu- 

 liarities of root development as the cutting 

 does in Fig. 144. 



The reader now desires to know why 

 the same one-sided method of root growth 

 does not take place at the end of the root 

 in the budded tree, for these stocks are 

 dressed or trimmed— that is, the tips of the 

 roots are cut off— before they are set in the 

 nursery row. The whole question turns 

 upon how much the roots of the stocks are 

 cut back. If only the very tip is 

 cut off, and there is a strong root 

 development above it, this tip will 

 simply heal over and develop no 

 side roots, or else what side roots 

 do develop will be very weak. This 

 is practically what takes place in the 

 145- Young root grafts. common treatment of budding stock. 

 If, however, the root were very severely cut ■back, the same 

 development would no doubt start from the tip of the 

 budded stock as from that of the root-grafted stock. Fig. 

 146, from life, shows how this may occur. The stock on 

 the left is budded, that on the right grafted. Both were 

 severely headed-in (cut off at T), and both have developed 

 prongy roots. The budded stock was much longer than the 

 other, however, and, therefore, its root system is stronger. 



