The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1906-01-10


cutting it off, and that often to the
injury of the tree They are strong
and healthy, and will compare favor
ably with the majority of trees of the
same age anywhere l see no reason
why in the next eight or ten years these
trees should not return an annual net
| income, that will equal several times
the cost of the land and trees. The
old trees on the farm show the soil is
well adapted to the apple. The fruit
grown on them was of good quality
and of an exceedingly high color. With
the large population right at the doors
the owner is almost independent of
! commission men and dealers. Sec
onds, Baldwins. were selling right
from the farm when l was there ut
40 cents per half bushel basket. The
owner also showed a familiarity with
the individual trees such as shep-
herd does for his flock, which speaks
well for the future of the orchard en-
terprise.
The same paper also contains some
thing on the subject under the follow
ing title:
HOPE FARM NOTES.
Root-Pruned Trees.-At Fig. 426. on
page 927. is a picture of two Of orr
peach trees to show how the roots
start. These trees were planted in
crOwbar holes. June-bud trees Wee
cut back so that about one foot of
stem was left above ground. The
roots were pruned so that not even a
stub of a side root was left. We
punched hole with a crowbar right
in brush grown field, where no plow-
ing had been done for at least 80
years. The little trees were put down
into the holes, and water and sand
poured in, then packed down hard
around the root The white mark
shows how far into the ground they
were set These trees did not receive
the care they should have had, and
they grew slowly at first. | have dug
up quite number of them to see
what they were doing, and i'm every
case thus far they have started like
those in the picture. Their first effort
seems to be a series of tap-rOOts, which
dig straight down into the ground The
bottom of the root under favorable
conditions forms callus, and
then sends out roots just about
like currant cutting. AS will
be seen in the picture these roots go
down. 1 have traced them until |
feel sure they reached nearly or quite
to the water level. 1 take it that the
chief object of this deep-roOted system
is TO supply water to the tree. That
seems to explain why such trees are
better able to stand drought or lack
of cultivation than trees with most of
the roots close to the surface / am
led by the appearance of these trees to
argue that if a man expects to succeed
with sod or mulch culture he should
start with rOOt-pruned trees and, if
possible, get the tap-rooted system.
| l have dug up a good many trees
and have spent much time in orchards
where dead trees are pulled out.
These trees were all planted i'm large
holes. with long roots left on them.
and some pains taken to spread these
roots out without cramping them. In
such orchards / have never yet found
a tree rooted as mine are. With the
large hole and long roots rarely find
Il tree with any useful roots much
below two feet from the surface. On
my rOOt-pruned trees the tap-rOOts are
often six feet or more under ground
of course we all understand that the
best feeding roots of the tree are in
the upper foot or 1S inches. The fact