84 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



shows a precisely similar plot, or rather half-plot, which has received no 

 dressing at all, and, as will be seen, there are now only a few stunted 

 bushes left in it. 



The third instance which I shall give of unexpected results in matters 

 of elementary horticultural practice is that obtained in the case of 

 planting a tree carelessly ; that is, planting it in untrenched ground, not 

 trimming the roots, huddling the roots together into a small hole, and 

 stamping the earth roughly down upon them. We planted many trees in 

 this way eleven years ago (in order to demonstrate, as we thought, the 

 evils of such malpractice), and though the trees at first showed some 

 slight deficiency in vigour, they soon more than picked up any ground 

 which they had lost, and were found to have grown more than similar 

 trees which had been planted according to all the rules of correct 

 procedure. These results we set aside at first as being impossible. But 

 we repeated them, and repeated them over and over again, always getting 

 similar results, and often of a more emphatic character than at first. In 

 the last ten years several hundred trees have been used in these experi- 

 ments. The explanation came at last through some experiments in 

 which we had planted some stocks improperly in another respect — namely, 

 by burying their roots two feet below the surface. These also behaved 

 exactly like the trees planted improperly in the manner previously 

 mentioned, and showed more vigorous growth than the properly planted 

 trees. On lifting them the reason became apparent, for it was found that 

 the check given to the original roots of the tree by the maltreatment 

 in planting had been sufficient to prevent these roots from developing 

 properly, but there was sufficient vigour in the tree to force into growth 

 dormant buds in the stem, and these had formed a new root-system, each 

 root of which, never having received any check to its growth by trans- 

 planting, grew more vigorously than the old roots, even in the case where 

 these old roots had been placed under the best conditions. 



The results are illustrated in figs. 9 and 10. The former shows 

 the roots of a Paradise stock which was planted properly at the usual 

 depth below the surface, the photographs having been taken when it was 

 first planted, and when it was lifted four years later. So far as can be 

 seen, it is only the old roots which have been developed during this time, 

 very few new ones having been formed. Fig. 10 shows similar photo- 

 graphs of a stock which was planted two feet below the surface, and it 

 will be seen that the original roots of the trees have dwindled away, while 

 an entirely new system of roots has been forced into existence higher up 

 the stem, and these have grown so vigorously that they have outstripped 

 the original roots of the properly planted tree, and an increase of branch - 

 growth was the natural consequence. 



The idea that improper or careless planting may lead to good results 

 will, doubtless, receive its due meed of adverse criticism, especially at the 

 hands of those who are ever indulging in the unpractical procedure of 

 condemning without trial anything which they believe to be opposed to 

 what they have been taught. But a little consideration will, I think, 

 make horticulturists realise that the production of good results by root- 

 injury in the form of careless planting, introduces no astonishing, or even 

 new principle in fruit-growing, for most of the main cultural operations 



