Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1883-01-11
ROOFING HABITS OF PLANTS.

We extract the following on this subject
from recent report of DR.. Sturtlvent of the
New York experimental station:
"An hypothesis (says the Doctor) which,
seems Justlt1able in the present state of our
knowledge is, that plants have different hab-
its of roofing; that various kinds of plants
procure their food principally from areas of
soil which may be defined. Thus we NAV
have the shallow feeders. those to whom a
high temperature of the soil is favorable to-
ward the root development, and the extent
to which the fitting temperatures penetrate,
marking quite well the regions in which the
roots feed. The corn plant seems to be
plant OF tropical tendencies, its roots spread
ing more widely and more abundantlv in
that portion of the surface which becomes
highly heated by the suns rays. Other
plants seem to require lower temperature
of soil for their best growth and develop
ment Such seem to be plants of more
northern climes, such as the wheat plant.
which has two systems of roots, the princi-
pal system seeming to thrive better in soil
OF lower temperature than will the corn plant
and which forms secondary system of cor
onal roots in the upper and warmer LAYERS
of the soil. The wheat plant, however, does
its growing in the cooler portions of the
year when the upper layers of the soil do
not become as warm as they do at the time
when corn does its growing. The potato
plant, native of the south temperate regi-
ons, may be classed as a northern plant in
its system of roofing, as. indeed 1T is, being
native of the south temperate regions and
having secured wide adaptations in temper
ate climes from upper Norway in the North
to the limit of settlement in the Antartic
South, and in the tropics, thriving best in
the elevated regions, which offer TEMPER
ate rather than tropical climate. Other
plants seem to be intermediate in their habits
OF roofing.
1T seems also reasonable to assume that
the place to apply fertilizers is in that region
where the plant roots do mostly feed, as thus
a greater economy may be secured. Know
ing the strong retentive power of the soil for
soluble phosphate of lime, and knowing that
when placed upon the surface it is carried
down but a short distance into the soil be-
tore it becomes fixed, and knowing the diff
Guilty, almost impossibility of getting one
surface application far below the surface of
the soil, except by mechanical means, we can
imagine cases where phosphate manures
have been applied to the surface soil upon
which deep rooted plant is being grown.
where the plant has received no benefit from
il simply because its roots has not penetra-
ted the strata of the soil in which the phos-
phate Of lime has become fixed.
1.-The wheat plant is said to be deep root
ing plant, the roots penetrating downward
from the seed more than 40inches in our clay
soil. The coronal roots occupied the upper
four inches with more horizontal roots than
were found in oats or barley. As our wheat
field was seeded also with timothy, we have
no special observation of our own to bring
forward at this time.
Oats and barley had very slender roots
oteven thickness throughout. The majority
of the roots terminated in the cultivated soil,