The Chairman: In the soils of some parts of New England, a tree would have to have a root three or four hundred feet deep to get to flowing water, but nevertheless trees flourish there.
Mr. Lake: But the capillarity of the soil provides water for the tree above the water-table.
Mr. Corsan: It all depends on the kind of nut. At St. Geneva I came across a butternut that was growing in a soil that would kill a chestnut very quickly. The soil was very springy and wet and the butternut just loves that soil. I found that while other butternut trees bore nuts in clusters of one to three, this butternut tree was bearing them in clusters of ten and eleven. At Lake George, right in front of the Post-Office, there was one tree twenty-four years old, two feet through, that grew butternuts in clusters of ten and you could get a barrel of nuts from it. It bore again this last summer heavily, not in clusters of ten but in clusters of seven or eight. When we have damp soil we can't grow the chestnut but the hickory nut will grow in a swamp, and so will the butternut.
The Chairman: And the beech.
Mr. Corsan: The beech wants clay; it won't grow unless there is clay.
The Chairman: Our beech will grow where it has to swim.
Mr. Reed: Before we get away from this discussion I think that we ought to commend Dr. Deming in the selection of this subject and in the handling of his paper. In my position in the Government, we have a good many inquiries about nut matters, and they are usually from people who want to know how to start. The great call for information at the present time is from the beginners, not from the advanced people, and I am glad that Dr. Deming took that subject and handled it as he did, and I am glad that he proposes to issue it as a circular from this Association. It will be a great relief to others who are called on for information.
I should like to have a word, too, about this tap-root question. From what has been said it is pretty clear that there is quite a difference of opinion. We sometimes think we can improve on nature in her ways by harsh methods and, while I know it is customary in the nurseries of the South to cut the tap-roots back pretty severely, I wonder, sometimes, whether that is always the best thing.
I haven't had any personal experience, but I have observed quite a good deal, and the tendency, it seems to me, is to try to develop as much as possible the fibrous root. Sometimes that is brought about by cutting the tap-root, or putting a wire mesh below where the seed is planted, so as to form an obstruction to the tap-root, so that it necessarily forms a fibrous root. Where the tap-root is the only root I doubt very much the advisability of cutting back too severely.
Col. Van Duzee: I have heard this subject discussed all over this country, in meetings of this kind, and a great deal of energy has been wasted. I do not think any of us know anything about it, but I do wish to say this, that when you come to transplant a tree from the nursery to the orchard, there are things of infinitely more moment than how you shall hold your knife between your fingers when you cut the roots. The exposure of the roots to the air, the depth to which the tree is to be put in the ground, the manner in which it shall be handled—those things are of infinitely more importance, because we know we can transplant trees successfully and get good results when the tap-root has been injured or almost entirely removed. I do not consider that the question of cutting the tap-root is of very serious importance, but I do think we should insert a word of caution as to the exposure of the roots of trees to the atmosphere, and make it just as strong as we are capable of writing it.