CH. I. 



BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



33 



then useless silver ends'. These are instantly replaced, 

 shoot freely through the loosened earth and manure, 

 soon become woody, and absorb the chemically nutri- 

 tious juices aud gases evolved by the manure. Trees 

 which require forcing should be top-dressed and 

 irrigated either with water or liquid manure over all 

 their roots, but manure should be only dug in outside 

 their extremities. 



But the spade actually is the great unknown Thej^pade 

 destroyer of our wall-fruit trees. On a practical post- ^^ji!}^^-^ 

 mortem examination and inquest on them, the gardener 

 finds that the only remains of roots are in the bad lower 

 soil. And his verdict, instead of tree -slaughter against 

 himself, is felo de se ; that is, died because the roots 

 would strike too low. But he omits to observe the 

 reason of this, which is, that the spade has destroyed 

 every upper rootlet as it was made. ' Agrum pessimum 

 mulctari cujus dominus audit non ostendit vilhcum ;' 

 and I wish that the editor of the ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 

 instead of quoting these misdeeds as authority, would 

 correct them as errors, — would say to the man of 

 practice, 'Don't dig so deep,' — and inform him that 

 the roots of his trees would be happy to revel in the 

 upper soil, if his spade would let them. 



Some trees have a tendency to form buds and to 

 shoot wherever stem, branch, or root is wounded. This 

 tendency in the horse-chestnut is so strong, that I think 

 it might be inoculated for branches Avherever they 

 were wished for. The wounds made by the spade are 



