The Chairman: That is a very interesting point, that we have fixed our eye on the tap-root and talked too much about it. Not long ago one of the agricultural journals decided finally to settle the question about the time for pruning grapes, whether it should be done in the fall, spring, winter or summer, and after summing up all the testimony from enthusiastic advocates for each one of the seasons, the editor decided that the best time is when your knife is sharp; and that is very much the way with the tap-root. Be very particular in getting the root in and caring for it.
Mr. Pomeroy: Prof. Close, in a bulletin issued two years ago, spoke as does Col. VanDuzee about protecting the roots of the trees; he said "when the trees are taken from the box that you receive them in, don't expose them to the sun or air, puddle every tree, and plant as soon as possible." I think that is pretty good advice. It doesn't cost any money, and takes very few minutes, to puddle the trees and it saves many of them.
The Chairman: I have tried the Stringfellow Method of cutting back top and root until my men asked me if I didn't want to transplant another tree instead, and they have grown just as well as trees on which I took great pains to preserve fine branching roots.
The Secretary: The last thing in my thought was to start a discussion of this perennial subject of the tap-root, but I should like criticism of this little circular, no matter how severe, because I am not finally committed to it and want to make it as useful as possible.
Prof. Smith: Every man likes to ride his own hobby horse. Would it not be wise to suggest that some of these seedlings be put in odd corners? Certainly the hickory and walnut are adept in making themselves a home in the roughest kind of land.
The Secretary: I have tried that, but I don't think, as a rule, the trees do well when stuck around in fence corners and odd places. To be sure the trees I put behind the barn or pig pen have grown beautifully, so that at one time I thought of building barns and pig pens all over the farm to put trees behind, but where they were set in fence corners and out of the way places they have not done very well. I think the experience of others is about to the same effect.
Prof. Smith: My experience has been different from yours. I have some chestnut and walnut trees, on an unploughable hillside in the corner of my father's farm in Virginia which I stuck there ten or a dozen years ago and have done very little to them. Of course they are native. They have thriven. Nature does it exactly that way.
The Secretary: It seems to me there is no question that they will do better under cultivation. Of course they may do fairly well in odd places if they can dominate the other growth.
Prof. Smith: A man could take a pocketful of the various kinds of nuts and go around his fence corners and plant a few. In an hour he can plant fifty, and if he gets one to grow it is good return for that hour's work.
The Secretary: I have advised people to take a handful of nuts and a cane when they go out walking and occasionally stick one in.