Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-07-23
Agricultural,


IHow Plant Root. Travel for Manure.
An exchange in an article on this subject
carries the idea (Which we often find else
where in our reading that plants scent ma
nure at distance, and send out their roots
after IL. This is quite too sentimental q view
of the subjeot-no pun being intended.
Plant roots grow al first equally In all direo-
tions from the main stem, so far as they are
not hindered by mechanical distractions.
But il plant.food is not equally distributed in
the soil, those roots will take on the greatest
development and grow the fastest which
strike into the richest spots. The result will
be- in the case of a tree, that II on one side
the land Is richer than on the others, that side
of the tree will grow the fastest, both above
and below ground. plant or tree is not a
single organism, in the sense in which an ami
NAL Is 80. You cannot feed one side Of pig
10 as to make 1t grow faster than another.
But with its millions of subterranean mouths,
reaching out in all directions, and it's million
Of leaves which are mouths, lungs and stom-
achs all in one, soil whose fertility is uneven
" distributed will cause an uneven growth.
The same is true of smaller plants though
the fact is not 80 observable. Plants have no
senses, and can only grope blindly in all di-
rectons for nutriment. The contrary notion
is poetical, but II is false. - Waterman.
The above is rational explanation OF the
reason that the roots of plants appear to have
a kind of instinct that directs them in their
search for food. Still it is not conclusive it
is a question whether plants can "only grope
blindly in all directions for nutriment" Is it
any more for the roots OF plant to turn in
the direction where it's food is to be found
than for the sunflower to turn toward the
source of light and heat ? If the roots which
strike into the richest spots grow fastest, that
fact is hardly sufficient to account for their
taking the direction Of the rich spots and
passing through barren soil, sometimes for a
considerable distance to reach them. II
they do not do this, large number of writ
ers, observers and scientists are at fault.
Prof s. W. johnson says the length Of the
roots depends on the nature of the soil.
"Where this is rich, the roots tend to remain ;
they branch and ramify through all the pores
of a small bulk of earth Where this is poor
they stretch of and are spsrsey distributed.
Where they find plenty of food they grow
and ramify upon it. Where nourishment is
lacking they seem TO go IN search Of it,"
Speaking of the length of the roots of wheat,
he says "a foot will, in majority of cases,
where the soil is of good quality, contain the
bulk Of the rooto of the wheat crop. They
may go deeper, as Shubsrt observed, but only
because they must descend in order to find
food or drink"
Dr. H. A. Cutting says "he has seen the
roots of maple tree which stood s. feet from
grave, which was more than FIVE feet deep,
and where the burial had taken place 10 years
before, not only enclose the cofin with hun
dreds of roots, but completely fill it with
a network of fbrous rootlets no larger than
ordinary threads. or course all the remains
the coffin formerly contained had been stolen
away to make up the tree growth"
Prof Asa Gray, in his Structural B)tsny
and Vegetable Physiology, says: when we
consider that the excitsbility of sensitive
plants is often transmitted, as il by sort OF
sympathy, from one part to another that il
is soon exhausted by repeated excitation Gas il
certainly the Gaze in Dion@a the sensitive
plant, etc, y to be renewed only after period
of repose that all plants require a season Of
repose that they consume their products anC
evolve heat under special circumstances will
the same result as in the animal kingdom
that, as il by kind of instinct, the variou
organs of the vegetable assume the position
or the directions most favorable to the proper
exercise of their functions and the supply oil
their wants, to this end surmounting interven
ing obstacles when we consider in this con
nection the still more striking cases of spon
taneous motion that the lower Alge exhibit
and that all these motions are arrested by mar
cotics or other poisons, the narcotic and acrit
posons even producing effects upon vegeta
bes respectively analogous to their differen
effects upon the animal economy we canno
avoid attributing to plants a vitality and
power of making movements tending to a de
terminate end not different in nature, per
haps, from those of the lowest animals
Probably life is essentially the same in tn
two kingdoms; and to vegetable life facul
ties are superadded in the lower animals
some OF which are here and there not indis
tinctly toreshadowed in plants"