34 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. II. 



a frequent source of suckers from tlie roots of fruit- 

 trees, and the careless or ignorant gardener will sliow 

 a fine bed of suckers with a dead trained fruit-tree. 



The only remedies to this suicidal diving propensity 

 of the roots of fruit-trees, which science has as yet 

 suggested, are to plant them on mounds, or on layers of 

 tiles ! ! This is as bad as to order the canal to be dug 

 deeper where it ran over the side ! Eoots, by nature, 

 have so strong a propensity to keep the surface, that 

 they may be observed, after diving from the wall to a 

 grass-walk, to rise so completely above it as to be 

 injured by the scythe, or by the hob-nailed hoof of the 

 clod who has condemned them as divers, and who, 

 when they emerge from the protection of the grass - 

 walk, again forces them to take a header out of reach 

 of his spade. But if the practice of the gardener is to 

 be law, what does he do with the ends of the roots 

 when he pots his plants ? He ruthlessly cuts them all 

 off smack and smooth ! And, in this case, if he 

 diminished their heads, his plants would not droop as 

 they do, and as my plants do not. 



Yet however false in reason and theory, practically 

 the planting fruit-trees in the garden on mounds is of 

 inappreciable advantage. For the fool who has raised 

 the mound will not be fool enough to dig it down again, 

 and so that part of the root which is of most value to 

 the tree, the woody part, is fenced from the spade. 



Planting forest-trees on mounds has, probably, 

 arisen from the malpractice of the garden. The system 



