RAISIKG TREES FROM SEED. 



31 



The main object in shortening the tap-root is to force 

 out side or lateral roots the following season, but it also 

 renders transplanting less troublesome, as it would be 

 yery inconvenient to dig trenches or holes three feet 

 deep in which to set seedlings not more fchan one or two 

 years old. These tap-roots are doubtless of value to 

 trees growing thickly in the natural unbroken soil of a 

 forest, and where there is little room for side or lateral 

 roots to grow, without coming in contact with those of 

 neighboring trees, and where it is necessary for roots to 

 go deep to find moisture, as when growing on high and 

 dry soils, but it is seldom that trees growing sparsely or 

 in low moist soils retain their tap-roots many years, if 

 they have them at all. Therefore they can only be con- 

 sidered necessary appendages under certain conditions, 

 none of which often exist in cultivated trees. 



I am well aw^are, that there are arboriculturists in this 

 country who will not agree with me in this, for some 

 often claim that the central or tap-root is a very essential 

 part of a tree, and for this reason they advocate plant- 

 ing seeds where the tree is to grow in order that it should 

 be preserved intact. But with all due deference to the 

 opinion of these gentlemen, my long experience with 

 trees has shown me that tap-roots are but short-lived at 

 best, except in rare instances, and only with trees grow- 

 ing on dry, hard soils, where all the roots go down deep- 

 ly in order to reach moisture. I have taken up thous- 

 ands of trees from moist soils and of all ages, from one 

 to twenty or more years old, and I never found one with 

 a tap-root of any considerable size, and generally there 

 was none at all on trees after they had reached the ago 

 of a half dozen years or more. I have also seen hun- 

 dreds of acres of our largest forest trees turned out by 

 the roots by tornadoes, and by stump-pullers in clearing 

 the land for canals and railroads, but not one in a hun- 

 dred had anything like a tap-root. 



