CH. IV. 



MISCELLAXEOUS. 



121 



seen ash- trees growing on gravel with the roots all 

 round them above the ground to an extent of double 

 the length of the boughs. 



Where cattle do not come, and where the surface 

 is not liable to denudation, as turf or pavement, the 

 ground may be observed to be raised about the roots 

 of trees by this lateral upward growth of the roots. 

 Where cattle do come the case may be altered. Cattle 

 use trees as rubbing-posts, and as refuges from flies, 

 the sun, wind, or rain. Under such circumstances, the 

 ground, instead of being raised, is often worn into 

 hollows around trees : for, the herbage being worn 

 away, in drought the earth is blown away as dust, and 

 cattle paw and cast it up with their feet to drive the 

 flies from them ; in Avet weather the earth is carried 

 away on the feet of the cattle. This, and the eternal 

 disposition of roots to rise by lateral growth in girthing, 

 bring them in contact with the feet of cattle, and they 

 become what is called ' cattle-trod.' This is a frequent 

 cause of the death of large trees, or of their decay. 



If there is this inherent natural tendency of roots 

 to rise above the ground, it is easy to imagine the 

 slaughter which the gardener's spade must commit 

 among the roots of old fruit-trees. Indeed, these, and 

 the roots of trees which are resorted to by cattle, may 

 be said to lire in a perpetual state of destruction. 



I think it, however, probable that this martyrdom 

 of the root may incline gross- growing trees to grow 

 fruit instead of wood. Tiius the grafting on a stock of 



