7 
The only other roots present were eight small brace roots from 
one-half to one inch in diameter, which extended downward into 
the soil at an angle of about 45 degrees. So long as they were un¬ 
cut the tree stood firmly in place, though the soil was removed for 
a depth of several feet. The long lateral roots were all cut and 
still the tree could not be moved until these little roots were sev¬ 
ered. The second tree had more of the lateral roots, but they arose 
and extended outward like those of the first. The brace roots were 
of the same character and of about the same number. 
“Trees with such a root system are adapted to alluvial soils, 
rich and easily penetrated. A certain amount of moisture is also 
essential to them. Under natural conditions elms grow among 
other plants, interspersed with other trees. The ground, besides 
being rich and from situation moist, is protected during winter by 
a mulch of dead leaves and in summer by shade and perhaps a 
tangle of undergrowth. Soil so protected does not give up its 
moisture quickly. But let such trees be exposed to the heat of the 
summer sun by cutting away all other trees, or by keeping the 
grass browsed or mowed closely over their long roots, and they 
become enfeebled in time and ready to succumb when any sudden 
and exceptionally severe drought or freeze comes. Even if the 
removal of our forests had no other effect than exposing the soil 
to the sun it is probable that such isolated trees would suffer in 
time. But removal of vast tracts of forest, coupled with tillage 
and other processes involved in peopling a country, is known to 
encourage drought in other ways: By favoring a rapid escape of 
rainfall by surface drainage, a process that is accelerated artificially 
by ditching, tile draining, and the like, eventually leading to con¬ 
stant late summer droughts from which not only trees but all other 
plants suffer. A tree with an extensive root system may not show 
the effect in one year, or in two, but in the course of many years 
the available food supply becomes exhausted, having been in part 
leached away by the running waters, and no fresh humus being 
supplied, the inevitable result is exhaustion for lack of both food 
and moisture. The effect shows first by the death of tips of 
branches, the tree not having vitality sufficient to keep up the cir¬ 
culation in the extremities, and the tree becomes ‘stag headed,’ to 
use an imported term. 
“If one looks about in Bluegrass Kentucky he will see many 
trees in this condition, oaks, ash and maples. The trouble is of 
course more or less serious according to the exposure of the roots. 
“Not only do trees fail to show signs of suffering immediately 
after the surface is cleared, but it is known to experienced forest¬ 
ers that for a time they grow more rapidly and appear to be in 
