10 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
Science Applied to Farming — LXVI: 
More About Roots. 
Roots Develop When. They Find Food. 
Dr. Nobbe, now director of the Agricul¬ 
tural Experiment Station at Tharand, Sax¬ 
ony, some years ago made a veiy interest¬ 
ing series of experiments which illustrate 
how roots develop most at those places 
where they find the greatest amount of food 
in the soil. He put some poor clay soil in 
glass cylinders or jars, adding a quantity 
of fertilizing material in 
each. In one, the fer¬ 
tilizer was placed near 
the center of the vessel; 
in another, at the bot¬ 
tom ; in a third, around 
the side; and so on. 
Corn was grown about 
four months, in the 
jars, which were then 
put in water, and the 
earth softened, so that 
by gentle agitation it 
was almost entirely re¬ 
moved from the roots. 
These thus suspended in 
water, assumed nearly 
the position they had 
occupied in the soil. 
Wherever the fertilizer 
had been thoroughly 
mixed with the soil, “ in 
a horizontal layer about 
one inch deep, the roots 
at that depth filled it 
completely, forming a 
mat of the finest fibres. 
When put half the depth of the vessel, just 
there the root system was spheroidally ex¬ 
panded. When forming a vertical layer on 
the interior walls, the external roots were 
developed in numberless ramifications, while 
the interior roots were comparatively un¬ 
branched. Where placed in a horizontal 
layer at the bottom, the roots extended down 
through the soil, as very small and slightly 
branched fibres, until they came in contact 
with the fertilizer 
in the lower stratum, 
where they greatly 
increased and rami¬ 
fied. In all cases, the 
principal develop¬ 
ment of the roots 
occurred in the im¬ 
mediate vicinity of 
the material which 
could furnish them 
with nutriment.” 
The plant sends out 
rootlets in all direc¬ 
tions ; those finding 
food live, enlarge, 
ramify, and push on 
further; those find¬ 
ing less food develop 
less ; those that get 
none remain un¬ 
developed or perish. 
Dr. H. A. Cutting, State Geologist, of Ver¬ 
mont, known to many readers of the Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist as an unusually careful 
observer, in a private letter to the writer, 
mentions a curious case in point. “ In Lu- 
nenburgh, Vt., in 1865, a grave was opened, 
and the roots from a maple tree, 65 feet 
away, were found all about the cofiin! On 
opening the latter, by permission, I found it 
Fig. 3. —OLDER WHEAT PLANT SHOWING THE ROOTS. 
completely filled with rootlets, most of them 
no larger than a thread. They had made 
their way into the cofiin, through the seams 
between the boards, which they had thus 
forced apart from one-sixteenth to one-eighth 
of an inch. They had of course stolen away 
the remains of the body and devoted them to 
the nourishment of the tree.” 
The account of the apple tree roots, which 
penetrated the grave of Roger Williams and 
conveyed away his remains to nourish the 
tree and form its fruit, is similar, though 
the roots did not go so far to find food. 
Roots seek water as well as the other in¬ 
gredients of their food. In the city of New 
Haven, Conn., noted for its elms, Prof. John¬ 
son * states that “ certain wells are so ob¬ 
structed by the aquatic roots of the elm trees 
as to require cleaning out eveiy two or three 
years.” Dr. Cutting tells me that he “ exam¬ 
ined elm roots taken from a wooden aque¬ 
duct in Randolph, Vt., 375 feet from the tree ! 
In numerous places between them and the 
tree they had enclosed the logs at the joints.” 
Fine Roots and Root Hairs. 
The food which plants gather from the soil 
is absorbed either through the surface of the 
fine roots or by root hairs, so small as to be 
scarcely perceptible without the aid of a mi¬ 
* In his book, “How Crops Grow,” published by the 
Orange Judd Co., N. Y., may be found some very interest¬ 
ing citations, from Sachs and others, concerning roots. 
croscope. These root hairs are tubular elon¬ 
gations of the external cells of the roots. 
Figure 1 is a young seedling mustard plant. 
A is the plant carefully lifted from the 
sand in which it grew, 
and B the same plant 
nearly freed from ad¬ 
hering soil by agitating 
it in water. The entire 
root, except the tip, is 
thickly beset with 
hairs.—In figure 2 is 
shown a minute por¬ 
tion of a root very 
highly magnified. The 
hairs, b, b, are seen 
as slender tubes that 
grow out from and 
form part of the cells, 
a, of the root.—Figure 
4 shows the appearance 
of a young wheat plant 
as lifted from the soil 
and shaken. S is the 
seed ; b, the blade ; e, e, 
roots covered with 
hairs, and enveloped in 
soil. Only the growing 
tips of the roots, iv, 
which have no hairs, 
come out free from 
soil.—Figure 3 repre¬ 
sents roots of a wheat 
plant one month older 
than those of figure. 4. 
Not only are the root 
tips naked as before, 
but the older parts of 
the primary roots, e, 
and of the secondary 
roots, n, no longer re- Fig. 4.— young wheat 
tain the particles of plant. 
soil—the hairs upon them being in fact 
dead and decomposed. The newer parts of 
the root alone are covered with living hairs. 
Figure 5 shows root hairs and adhering 
particles of earth highly magnified. A, Root 
hairs of wheat seedling, like fig. 3. B, Root 
1.—YOUNG PLANTS. 
