Notes on a Dry Land Orchard. 5 
feet horizontally where they were still nearly one-half inch in di¬ 
ameter. Judging by other roots which were traced out more com¬ 
pletely, these roots were probably fifteen or twenty feet long. None 
of them grew deeper than fifteen inches. The tree was three inches 
in diameter. The west side of the tree was alive, but was in bad 
condition. Plate I, Figure 1 shows the tree as it stood in the 
ground, and Figure 2 shows a view of the roots. 
Tree Number Two .—This was a Wealthy tree which was 
planted deep in 1897. Its trunk was seven inches in diameter. It 
was found that the roots grew upward until they came near the 
surface, and then grew outward or downward according to the 
soil. Twelve roots of this tree were traced from five to ten feet 
horizontally from the tree where they were cut off when still one- 
fourth to one-half inches in diameter. Six of them turned down 
when three to ten feet from the trunk. These all followed holes 
which had been made by burrowing animals. Two were traced 
three feet, one four feet, one five feet, and two five and one-half 
feet deep. And they were from one-fourth to one-third inches in 
diameter when cut off. But nearly all the real feeding roots of 
this tree were in the upper eighteen inches of soil. In few cases 
during the work of digging out all the trees were roots found go¬ 
ing more than three feet deep, excepting those which followed 
holes. The upper eighteen inches of soil were filled with fibrous 
roots. Roots from other trees were found interlacing with the 
outer ends of the roots of all the trees. One view of the roots of 
this tree is shown in Figures 3 and 4 which shows the tangle of roots 
starting from the trunk. The subsoil here contained many large 
lumps in which they were found many white flakes which are sup¬ 
posed to be compounds of lime and magnesia. The roots seemed to 
have tried to avoid these lumps, going around, over or under them 
rather than through them. We expected to find many roots above 
the graft on these deep-planted trees, but none were found on either 
this tree or the other deep-set tree which was dug out. 
Tree Number Three .—Tree number three was a Mann apple 
tree which was set two and one-fourth feet deep in 1897. It had 
grown well and its trunk was about seven inches in diameter at the 
ground. Plate II, Figure 4 shows this tree with roots d!ug out. The 
top of this tree spread about eight feet in all directions. The ex¬ 
treme tips of the roots, traced until they were only one-fourth 
inches in diameter, spread 33 feet. A few of these roots were 
traced three feet deep. The roots of this tree occupied the upper 
eighteen inches of soil quite fully in a space 30 feet in diameter. 
Many of its roots were traced 15 feet from the trunk. The tree had 
a well-balanced top, and its root system showed a good distribution 
through the soil on all sides. 
