New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 349 
lying from three to ten inches below the surface. Several plants, 
particularly the legumes, the cabbage family, lettuce, parsley, 
parsnip, beet, and perhaps a few others, doubtless obtain a consider- 
able amount of their nourishment below ten inches, but judging 
from the locality in which the fibrous roots are most numerous we 
may infer that even these secure more of their food above than 
below that depth.” 
2nd. “In general terms the plants make the largest development 
of stem and foliage during summer, as corn, sorghum, tobacco, and 
the cucurbitae, are those of which the feeding ground is shallowest 
in the soil.” ; 
Later an attempted application of these results was made in the 
field. It was found with corn that root pruning, such as would be 
caused by ordinary cultivation, seriously retarded the growth of the 
young plants, and that this lessened growth was detrimental to the 
crop harvested the following autumn. That this injury came from 
the root cutting alone independently of the effects of stirring the 
soil was demonstrated by using a lawn edger in place of the ordi- 
nary cultivator, the soil being stirred as little as possible, no culti- 
vation being given throughout the growing season except scuffle 
hoeing and weed pulling. The results were the same as before, the 
root-pruned plants yielding decidedly less than those in which the 
roots were not pruned. A wet growing season seems to lessen the 
injury arising from this cause. 
