The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-08-12
The Length of Roots.

ONE of the most interesting studies to
the student in agriculture, and an es-
pecially-important one to the practical
farmer, is the roots of plants, their growth
and their various functions in connection
with the growth of plants. 1t is a subject
about which, until comparatively late
period, but little was understood, and of
which even now but little is truly known.
The length to which roots extend, and
why, is one of those subjects the ordinary
farmer cares but little about; and yet is a
subject of paramount importance, and one
that ought to be especially studied by ev-
cry farmer who expects to keep pace with
the times in the cultivation of crops The
roots are the mouths of the plant, and they
must extend to where they find proper food
for the plant Fed --''
Prof W. J. BeaI, Professor of Botany
and Horticulture at the Michigan Agri-
cultural College, sends US some facts re-
lating TO the length of roots In light,
poor soil he found the roots Of June-grass
four feet below the surface roots of a wheat
plant four TO six feet The roots Of two
year-Old peach tree were found seven feet
four inches long.
Mr. Felker, one of the college gradu-
ates, found the roots of the famous butia-
10 grass-described in the reports of the
Department of Agriculture at Washington
as " having very short roots"-to be any
| thing but short or superficial. Near where
a well was being dug he traced the roots
down seven feet.
Prof Beal very truly says that roots do
not search for food, as vegetable physi-
| ologists now understand it. Many of the
smaller roots of trees die every autumn
when the leaves die, and others grow in
! spring. He instances the fact of rustic
basket, without bottom, filled with rich
soil. On removing the basket and earth,
which had been there several years, cher
ry-roots were found in large numbers in
this rich ssoil. Roots in such soil will
grow up just as. well as down.
Mr. Thomas j Burrill, Professor. OF
Botany and Horticulture at the Illinois
Industrial University, a close student and
enthusiastic investigator, in an address
before the Patrons of Husbandry at Free
port, H., in May last, gives the follow.
ing testimony in relation to the length Of
roots. OF wheat and rye he says:
THE wheat was sown April 5. 1875
and examined May Is, 1875, forty days
after sowing The depth reached is in
deed surprising, being twenty-one inches
far below the plowed soil. As the seed
must have been some days terminating
the growth per day must be considerably
over half an inch. Botanists will be in.
terested in observing that the first roo,
from the seed or radicle is the only one
growing directly downward 1t is as true
a tap-root as that of the hickory tree The
other roots start from the stem, not the
seed
Rye was sown last autumn and exam
ined the same day as the wheat The
deepest root found was three and one-hali
feet, or forty-two inches from the surface
One-fourth of the whole mass of 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 subsoii, while tc
the greatest depths the black, thread-like
marks indicated the former presence of Q
multitude of roots Often the living roofs
followed down these old tracks, and were