Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-08-12
F" Rye was sown last autumn and exam

Rye was sown last autumn and exam
ined the same day as the wheat. The
deepest root found was three and one.half
feet, or forty-two inches from the surface
One-fourth of the whole mass 4 roots was
estimated to reach depth OF one foot
four inches below the pillow. Corn had been
grown upon the ground two years before
and there were still left many partially de-
cayed roots IN the clayey subsoil, while to
the greatest depths the black, thread-ike
marks indicated the former presence of a
multitude of roots Often the living roots
followed down these old tracks, and were
sometimes found incased by the remains
of an old root, having grown through it.
The land was low and tile-drained, the
rye just reaching the standing water in the
soil. The black soil was twenty-one inches
deep; the SubSoil wasa stiff, yellow clay"
In another connection he notices the
roots of a Lombardy poplar in his garden,
the roots of which extended seventy-one
feet, and cites case where tile-drain in
New Hampshire was Distracted by the
roots of an elm $50 feet away. Prot. Stock
bridge, of the Massachusetts Agricultural
College, washed out a clover root one year
old eight feet deep. Mr. Dixon, of En-
gland, dug a parsnip thirteen feet six
inches, and broke it off at that depth.
Lucerne has been known to reach, in
England, twenty feet bin depth A
British officer in India reports having seen
tree-root followed sixty-nine feet deep
without coming to an end Roots also.
spread horizontally over equally surpris-
| ing areas. AT Amherst, Mass, an elm
sent its roots seventv-five feet from the
| trunk.
| In the case of the squash which Presi-
dent Clark, of the Massachusetts Agricult-
ural College, caused to be harneSsed and
bear a pack like a mule, the squash mot
the mule) commenced by lifting sixty
pounds on Aug. 81, and ended by support
ing a weight on Oct 81 of 5000 pounds
and for ten days thereafter. On Oct. a it
lifted 4, 100 pounds. A Mr. D. P. Penhal-
low is said to have watched with it several
days and nights, making hourly observa-
| tons; Prof HI. W. Parker was moved to
write a poem about it, and Prof J. H.
Seeley declared that he positively stood in
awe OF it,
After all this trouble and toll, watching
and waiting, expense and energy spent,
what did it all amount to, either in scien-
tific or practical sense? So much and no
more than to know how far a flea will
jump, OF how big boy an ordinary Down
East swapping turtle will support and walk
away with.
One thing in connection with this
squash is of value, as showing the surpris-
| ing extension Of the roots. Like some
human squashes it was an aristocratic
| squash, and had a palace to live in and
servants to attend it. The seeds ''were
| planted on the list of July in one Of the
| propagating pits of the Durfee plant
house, where the temperature and moist
ure could be easily controlled. A rich
bed of compost from a spent hot-bed was
prepared, which was four feet wide, fifty
feet long and about six inches in depth.
Here, under the fostering care of Prof.
4h"y hoANt, IhO oCCoo StIlllludtGCl, Gnc vine
grew vigorously and the squash lifted in
a most satisfactory manner"
1t is we'll known to every gardener that
our winter squashes will, under favorable
| circumstances, produce roots at every
node or joint. President Clark states that
one of these modal roots was washed out
and found to be four feet long and to have
$50 branches, averaging with their
branchlets, a length of thirty inches,
making total of more than 200 feet.
AS there were seventy modal roots there
must have been more than fifteen miles in
length on the entire vine There were
certainly more than $4,000 feet, and of
these $4,000 feet must have been produced
at The rate of 1000 feet or more per day
" Farm and G0rde1a," Chicago Tribune.
Poisoned Eruif