44 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 17, 1895. 
sought for at unknown depths, but to young trees which are 
attended to annually, and the soil will be found to contain a 
network of the finest fibrous rootlets, every one exhibiting unmis- 
takeable signs of activity. In the winter, and when the soil has 
softened after frost, I have found on many kinds of fruit trees 
roots in a state of activity. 
During the last winter I had an opportunity of noting a very 
striking example of root action. Some young trees were lifted 
in November, and owing to circumstances could not be replanted 
at the time. The balls were packed round with littery straw, and 
were not again touched until after the middle of January. The 
deciduous trees comprised a Japanese Maple, a Cydonia, and two 
deciduous Cypresses. The Cydonia proved the more active 
winter rooter, for the ball bristled with white rootlets, but the 
others also were furnished with growing roots. I have repeatedly- 
examined young fruit trees received from a nursery and planted 
in November, and in January the roots were plainly in a growing 
state. I do not doubt that it is not always possible to find trees 
in this condition, but I would rather blame the cultivator for this 
than the trees. The former frequently leaves the roots exposed 
to the air, instead of either planting at once or protecting them 
until they can be planted, and he does not always smooth with the 
knife the broken ends of roots. 
Should the objection be made that trees having only a few 
thick, fibreless roots, if planted in the beginning of winter will 
survive as well as trees with a solid ball of fibrous roots, the fact 
cannot be gainsaid. But they survive with a difference. The 
first mentioned will not respond in the same manner as the latter 
to the call of spring. Life in the first case has been no more than 
preserved, and no provision made for the future. In the other, 
the buds will have been to a certain extent provided for. Not 
so much, however, as in the case of trees that had been left in the 
ground untouched, and which are ready for the new season with 
floral organs fully equipped, with wood buds ready to develop 
into full leafage, and shoots ready to extend with the lengthening 
days. These well-marked differences between each of the three 
classes of trees can be accounted for only by the condition of the 
roots. The trees with roots intact begin the season with foliage 
and flower in the best condition. Those transplanted with a mass 
of fibrous roots exhibit in flower and foliage the effects of the check, 
while those having no fibrous roots, but merely bare under¬ 
ground stems, require much care so that they may be kept alive 
during the summer. 
In practice every intelligent gardener acts on the principle that 
roots are active in some degree throughout the winter. Trees are 
purchased at the fall of the leaf ; they are chosen as much with 
reference to the fibrous nature of the roots as for the appearance 
of the tree ; planted as early as possible in winter ; staked to keep 
the roots from moving, and mulched to protect the roots, and at the 
same time to enrich the soil. Experience has shown that the 
above is good practice, and it has been carried out for centuries. 
No doubt trees are most accommodating, but I would much prefer 
to leave over the planting which could not be done in November 
until spring, so as to allow them to have full advantage of what we 
term the “resting” peried. I had a happy illustration of the 
success of late spring planting so recently as 1892, when I planted 
150 Apple trees in the first week of April. I have had young trees 
succeed as well in the first year as these did, but never better. 
They came from a well-known fruit nursery 200 miles distant by 
rail, and arrived as fresh as if they had been lifted in our own 
garden. I took extra precautions, no doubt, for each tree, root, and 
stem was immersed in a solution of loam, cow manure, and water. 
A little good compost was allowed for trees, and they were watered, 
in all, three times. Many of them set fruit, which, of course, was 
nearly all removed, and the shoots they made would average quite 
3 feet in length. They were examples of doing with hardy trees 
what is often done with Grape Vines—that is, planted near the 
stage of growth when the buds are rapidly swelling. I have 
no doubt they would have succeeded equally well if the buds 
had been at the bursting stage ; indeed, last spring I obtained from 
a nursery a score of large Laburnums with the buds bursting, and 
with care in planting, and in watering afterwards, they grew and 
flowered well. 
It is evident that an affirmative answer to the question heading 
these notes has a distinctly practical bearing on cultivation. The 
dryness of inside fruit borders is seen to be inimical, inasmuch as it 
prevents the progression of certain changes in the buds of the 
trees, and more particularly as regards fruit buds. In short, the 
trees are starved. There is, moreover, good reason shown for 
pruning fruit trees directly the leaf falls. Early pruning of trees 
grown under glass is particularly advantageous, for it is plain that 
the removal of unnecessary shoots allows those that are left to 
receive the greater benefit. In other words, by removing surplus 
growths at the end of a season the tree is discharged from making 
provision for buds which in any case must be cut off, and thus the 
legitimate buds gain advantage. 
Again, it must follow that manorial mulchings of whatever 
nature applied to fruit trees in the autumn shall be productive of 
benefit at once, and not prospectively as some persons think. It 
also shows that old trees requiring to be root-pruned are better 
done in detail in the summer than in the winter, because in the 
former case a year is gained with at the same time less chance of 
injury to the trees. When root-pruning is carried out in the winter 
the growth of the tree during the next summer is affected, and 
fruit buds are the work of the autumn. If, on the other hand, 
stout roots are cut back during the early summer the tree will be 
in much the same condition the following autumn, as the winter- 
pruned tree would be a year later, and the comparative activity of 
the new roots produced, as the effect of root-pruning will provide 
fruit buds for the coming year.—B. 
TAKING STOCK. 
In the busy world of commerce, where success depends so largely 
on method and accuracy in the conduct of affairs, periodical stock¬ 
taking has long been recognised as an absolute necessity to the 
continuance of prosperity. This is a fact so generally acknowledged 
that negligence in the matter among firms or individual business 
men is looked on as a sign of present unstableness, if not a pre¬ 
cursor of future collapse. This commendable practice of stock¬ 
taking has not yet become universal in private gardens, although in 
a certain sense it has long been pursued in many, and may with 
advantage be more generally followed in the future. 
With the beginning of the year one of the most important 
matters to demand attention is the overhauling of the seed-room, to 
take stock of the reliable (and unreliable) seeds on hand, and then 
determine how many more will be required, so that the seed order 
may be made up and dispatched without delay to insure a speedy 
execution. To a young gardener in his first head place the difficulty 
of making out the seed order so as to have about the right quantity 
of the various kinds of seeds is one that must be grappled with, for 
if attended to in only a haphazard fashion the chances are that far 
too many seeds of such vegetables as Salsafy, Leeks, Endive, and 
sweet herbs will be ordered, and insufficient amounts of main crop 
vegetables, such as Turnips, Onions, Carrots, and Beet. This 
latter state of affairs causes much annoyance at sowing time, by 
deferring the completion of the work till a further supply of seeds 
is obtained. On the other hand, should considerable quantities be 
left it is not good policy to rely on them entirely the following 
year (unless they are first tested in moderate heat), because if any 
particular sowing should fail it usually means a break in the supply 
of produce. 
Sometimes the work of making out the seed order is made easy 
by reference to the orders executed in previous years ; but too 
often, when entering on new duties, a gardener finds nothing of 
the kind to guide him. Then, again, some families have a great 
partiality for certain vegetables, which must in consequence be 
grown in far larger bulk than is necessary in another garden 
of the same size where such abnormal demands do not exist. These 
seemingly unimportant details amply repay the little trouble 
involved in making inquiries about them. When the requirements 
of an establishment are once ascertained the matter is usually 
plain sailing. • 
