So PICTORIAL PBAOTIGAL FRUIT GROWING. 



of culture. If I may be permitted a seeming paradox, the roots were kept 

 up through being afforded every facility for going down. The land was 

 very deeply trenched and thoroughly pulverised, so that you could press a 

 walking stick up to the handle in it without much difficulty — admirably 

 calculated, one would say, to encourage roots to descend. Well, they did 

 not strike down, and for this reason : A soil that is thoroughly pulverised 

 is a, soil that is full of air and moisture. It does not crack through 

 drought, because it is never dry. If it were dry near the top, roots would 

 rush down to try and iind moisture below ; as it is moist near the top the 

 roots stay there. The soil being full of air, the " solubising " (to coin a 

 word) of plant food is in full progress, and the tree rapidly multiplies its 

 feeding fibres in order to take advantage of the good things. In my 

 experience, now approaching a quarter of a century, amongst cultivated 

 trees, I have seen all sorts of devices resorted to for making them healthy 

 and fruitful, from doing away with grafting to hanging bricks on the 

 branches, or laying pavements under orchards ; from tremendously hard 

 pruning to no pruning at all. But none of them (harmless and amusing for 

 the most part) ever got together so magnificent a lot of trees as those 

 which I have been describing. 



It follows from what has been- said that simply chopping ofiE so many 

 roots from a fruit tree is not the be-all and end-all of root management. 

 The first thing is to get the soil into the right mechanical condition for 

 holding moisture through long periods of drought, and for permitting the 

 free ingress of air. When this condition is secured by trenching, exposure 

 to the atmosphere, and vigorous manipulation by spade or fork, early 

 relifting will do nearly all the rest, 



To come to details, a young tree should not be lifted when the growth 

 is short and fruit spurs are forming fast, but a tree should be lifted when 

 the summer growths are numerous, are 18 inches long or more, and devoid 

 of fruit buds. Begin 3 feet from the tree, work carefully towards the stem, 

 and as soon as fibres are met with delve down below the tree and work it 

 out. The operation may be performed as soon as the leaves ripen in autumn, 

 if the weather be showery and the soil moist; but if dry it should be deferred. 



It may be objected that the foregoing remarks only have interest for those 

 people who are starting with fruit, and that they are not of much value to « 

 the large number who enjoy Sj legacy of trees from a hygone generation. 

 Such a protest would be reasonable. There are thousands of trees in the 

 country of whicli the roots are in an unsatisfactory condition that are too 

 large to lift, and may not be done away with. In this case it is well to 

 make a trench round the tree so as to get at the roots, doing half one year 

 and half the next, whenever a tree seems disinclined to bloom. 



Boot pruning is often carelessly done, the roots being severed by blows 

 with a spade. A knife (or a small saw for very thick roots) should be 

 used. It should be remembered that the growing roots of a tree are much 

 softer than the branches, and a sharp pruning knife will easily sever any 

 root up to 1 inch in thickness. Downward cuts should not be made. Up- 

 ward cuts are better, because the fibres which push from them have a 

 tendency to strike horizontally rather than downward (see B, Fig. 21, page 35). 



In root pruning large trees a special effort should be made to cut strong 

 roots striking obliquely into bad subsoil. These are often difficult to get at, 

 as I know from sad experience, for they often plunge down almost per- 

 pendicularly at a short distance from the bole ; but some of them ought to 

 be attacked, as they are a terrible source of unfruitful top growth. 



