New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 
95 
and extended horizontally. What induced the roots to grow in this 
manner ? Evidently they did not grow upward in search of moisture. 
The soil was warmer and more fertile near the surface than near the 
bottom of the tile, and it was undoubtedly one of these inducements 
that attracted them upward. Had abundant nourishment been sup- 
plied at the base of the tile, and the roots were still found to have 
grown upward, the inference would be warrantable that they were 
attracted upward by warmth. 
In the spring of 1887, four pits were dug, each three feet in diameter 
and three feet deep. Two of these were filled to the top with fertile 
soil, mixed with compost; the other two were filled with the same to 
the depth of two feet, and finished to the top with the clay that had 
been taken from the bottom of the pits. In the center of two of these 
pits, one of which was filled to the top with fertile soil, and the other 
finished at the top with clay, two four-inch sole tiles were placed erect, 
one resting on the other, so that a tube was formed to the depth of 
twenty-eight inches. In each of the other two pits, one tile was placed, 
making a tube in the center fourteen inches deep. The tiles were then 
filled to the top with fertile soil, tamped in lightly to ensure a continu- 
ous column. Thus prepared, we had abundant fertile soil at the bot- 
tom of all the pits, while in two, the surface soil was a very infertile 
clay. 
In each of the two pits containing the single length of tile, a few 
kernels of Waushakum corn were planted in the soil within the tile, 
while in the tiles of the other pits, seeds of the Student parsnip were 
planted. These plants were chosen because the corn is known to root 
shallow, and the parsnip deep. After the seeds had vegetated, the 
young plants were thinned to one for each pit. The corn plants made 
an excellent growth, and each produced several stalks. The one in the 
pit topped out with clay yielded three merchantable ears and five 
nubbins, and the other, three merchantable ears and two nubbins. 
The parsnip plants were a fair growth. 
On September twenty-four, the roots of the corn plants were washed 
out and examined. In neither the pit filled to the surface with fertile 
soil, nor in the one topped out with clay did the roots incline upward 
to any extent. The appearance was the same as if the bottom of the 
tile corresponded to the surface of the soil. The roots were very 
much as in their natural position, extending in every direction except 
upward. A few fibers reached upward in both pits, but no more than 
in corn roots growing under ordinary conditions. 
On September 29, the roots of the parsnip plants were exam- 
ined in the same manner. Very few roots had penetrated to the 
