38 
THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 
Argument from 
the Gardener’s 
Chronicle con¬ 
sidered. 
haps, a hundred feet directly under the centre 
of its stem ? 
Owing to condensation, the ground under¬ 
neath the head of a tree is much more watered 
than that outside it; and, besides this, it escapes 
the great evaporation of the summer drought 
and heat. For when the rays “ nimium propinqui 
solis” are the hottest, its canopy of leaves is the 
densest. 
The editor of the “Gardener’s Chronicle” 
thinks that roots absorb only by their ends, 
because gardeners dig manure in only round the 
outside of the semicircle of the roots of their 
fruit-trees, without perceiving that the fact cuts 
against his own argument. If they were to dig 
it in nearer the stem their spade would destroy 
the really absorbent part of the root, the woody 
part; and, as “omne majus continet in se minus,” 
they would also destroy the much-valued spon- 
gioles. By digging round the outside, they destroy 
little more than the then useless silver ends. These 
are instantly replaced, shoot freely through the 
loosened earth and manure, soon become woody, 
and absorb the chemically nutritious juices and 
gases evolved by the manure. Trees which re¬ 
quire forcing should be top-dressed and irrigated 
either with water or liquid manure over all their 
