hairman: 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