Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-12-07
The Depth OF Roots.

.
Z. Experimental Station, contains DR..
oturtevant's observations on fertilizers.
He has this to say on the depth of
roots Of various farm crops:
The corn may be said as the result
of our digging and washing out of roots
to be a shallow feeder. An abundant
supply OF small fibrous roots may be
seen to penetrate the upper four in
ches Of the soil in every direction to at
least three feet from the plant, and
probably still further, but the plants we
had under observation were in the
field with other plants, and we could
not mark clearly individual roots be
yond this distance, although the effect
of fertilizers supplied seemed to be ev-
ident in the growth of the plant in
many cases to the distance of ten or
more feet.
A system Of coarser roots fewer in
number, passed downward from the
corn plant to tse depth Of three feet
ono inch upon our clay soil, aud these
cannot be supposed to contain 1-lQ00
part Of the feeding surface OF the
smaller roots in the upper strata Of the
soil. One corn plant whose roots we
wassed out showed the fibrous roots
to occupy the upper four inches of the
soil, one root penetrating the clay to
the depth of twenty-nine inches. The
upper soil was filled with a net work of
tibrous roots, not only underneath the
plants, but also for the distance of two
and 6ne-half feet on either side, when
h, hn NJ he
came intermiugleG and checked our
observation.
The wheat plant il said tie be ueep
roofing plant, the roots penetrating
downward more than forty inches in
our clay soil. The coronai roots oc-
cupied the upper four inches with
more horizontal roots than were found
il oats or barley. AS our wheat field
was also seeded with timothy, we have
no special observations of our own TO
bring forward this time.
Oats and barley had very slender
roots of even thickness throughout.
The majority of the roots terminated
in the cultivated soil, but we traced
one root of barley thirty-two inches
downward and one OF oats thirty inches
downward. These plants seem to be
intermediate in their roofing character,
occupying quite a wide range of soil
with their feeding roots.
The potato is also deep-rooting
plant. One root was traced twenty
eight inches below the seed and twenty
two inches below the surface of the
ground between the ridges upon which
the seed was planted. The roots ap-
pesred more iibrous deep in the ground
than near the surface, diminishing in
size after attaining a distance of few
inches from the stem. No true roots
were found above the tubers. The
soil Was clay of II very tenacious ebay
acter.
The tobacco plant is shallow rooter.
The roots not only grow close to the
surface where Is the greatest warmth,
but when hoed and the nearer roots to
the plan! probably destroyed, ths roots
come to the surface again between the
rows. Cultivation, by furnishing q
friabe soil, seems TO increase largely
the number of these surface roots, and
they do not seem to have the power OF
entering land which is unbroken. The
deepest root traced went down about
20 inches. There seems to be two sys-
TENS Of roots to this plant, one large
and tapering quickly to a point; the
others more in number, penetrating a
distance of two and half feet from
the plant and but very slender, main.
tanning an even thickness throughout.
Some of these roots were seen to grow
upward shortly after leaving the stem
until they came nearly to the surface
Of the ground.