342 
THE FLORIST. 
ROOT PRUNING AND TRANSPLANTING. 
The main object of root pruning is the production of a numerous crop 
of small fibrous roots or feeders, which will replace the long, rambling, 
and frequently naked, roots which most fruit trees make when left to 
themselves. There is also the advantage of having these feeders within 
a small area, that the requisite waterings and mulchings may be done 
effectually and at little expense. There are also other benefits trace¬ 
able to the same cause, for it is found in practice that the wood of 
fruit trees well furnished with small rootlets growing up to near the 
surface of the soil, ripen much sooner in the autumn, and produce fruit 
buds in greater abundance than trees whose roots have not been 
disturbed, and are therefore less furnished with fibrous roots. It 
therefore follows that most wall trees, espaliers, and bush trees, as 
pyramidal and other shaped Pears and Apples, will be rendered more 
productive, more easy to manage, and to keep within a given space, 
when subjected to a judicious system of root pruning; bearing in mind 
the habit of the trees operated upon, as also the kind of stock; for as 
summer and winter prunings are necessary to regulate the growth of 
the top, and encourage the formation of fruit buds, so root pruning should 
be carried out on principles which will best furnish a large number of 
active feeding roots within a given space; and as the oftener roots are 
pruned the greater tendency they have to make small fibres instead of 
large roots, a little experience in the matter will enable the operator to 
increase or diminish their number proportionately to the vigour and size 
of the tree. There is also something considerable saved in the shape of 
labour and new composts for borders. When trees are intended to have 
their roots annually pruned a large border need not be made at all, and 
only a portion at first starting; suffice* it, that the ground where the 
trees will have to grow has a bottom impervious to the roots, and 
that it is also made dry from land springs and surface water. It may 
vary in depth from eighteen inches to three feet, which represent the 
two extremes (but I have seen very fine fruit produced from soil even 
less than eighteen inches deep) ; sufficient new earth will only be 
required at planting time to serve the tree for one season, as it is a 
great feature of the system that it enables the cultivator yearly to place 
in immediate contact with the newly formed feeders a supply of fresh 
food, which, small as it will be compared with the range of a 
border several feet in width, is nevertheless found to promote great 
vigour in the trees, owing to its being applied just when and where it is 
wanted, and when the recently formed roots possess great activity for 
taking up their proper nourishment from the soil. 
After a few years, not only will the soil round the outward circum¬ 
ference .of the roots require annually removing, to allow for their exten¬ 
sion into the new soil forming a ring round them, but also the 
exhausted soil should be entirely removed from the roots, and probably 
a portion of the fibrous roots themselves may require cutting away, 
where too thick, or their appearance indicates inactivity ; and the whole 
filled in with fresh compost. 
The limits which the roots will occupy must be regulated by the 
