Arrowroot

“ From these bulbs the arrowroot is produced by pounding them in water and drying the precipitated farina in the sun.
There are several beautiful varieties of orchidaceous plants upon the mountains; among others, several species of the dendrobium. Its rich yellow flowers hang in clusters from a withered tree, the only sign of life upon a giant trunk decayed, like a wreath upon a grave. The scent of this flower is well known as most delicious; one plant will perfume a large room. ”

“ Arrowroot grows in almost any fairly rich soil, and is a capital crop to put in after some surface crop, as oats, barley, maize. It should not be put in land too freshly manured or it grows too much to leaf. It will yield as much as 14 to 16 tons of bulbs per acre, and upon some soils more than that.
It is a very good crop for a young selector farmer to put in, particularly if no one else about has done so, as he will then have a certain market for it in town. From seven to eight months after planting the crop is ready for digging. ”

“ They are, strictly speaking, bulbs rather than nuts. They are rich in arrowroot and are prolific, an acre of shallow water producing far more than an acre of well cultivated soil planted in ordinary grain or similar crops. ”

“ It should be hand-weeded in the spring, because if it is hoed, most likely you will cut some of it off which may be springing under ground, and it will never come up so strong again. Arrowroot requires very strong ground and plenty of manure. ”

“ These seasonings, with the addition of salt, pepper, and parsley, are the essential flavorings for stock soups. Flour, cornstarch, arrowroot, fine tapioca, sago, pearl barley, rice, bread, or eggs are added to give consistency and nourishment.
In small families, where there are few left-overs, fresh meat must be bought for the making of soup stock, as a good soup cannot be made from a small amount of poor material. On the other hand, large families need seldom buy fresh meat, provided all left-overs are properly cared for. ”

“ The arrow-root plant has its name from the Indians {10}using its juice as a remedy for wounds inflicted by poisoned arrows. They likewise consider it efficacious against the stings of those venomous insects with which the countries of nearly all hot climates abound.
The starch or powder of arrow-root is obtained by the following process. The roots, when a year old, are dug up, washed, and beaten to a milky pulp, in deep wooden mortars. ”

“ The greater part of the commodity sold under the name of arrow-root in the shops of the druggists and grocers is prepared from the fecula or starch of wheat and of dry mealy potatoes, with a portion of arrow-root. When good, the grains of arrow-root are very fine, with numbers of little clots which are formed by the aggregation of the minuter grains while the commodity is drying, and when examined by a magnifying glass appear pearly and very brilliant. ”

“ We must learn that some trees, like oak, sugar maple, dogwood, ash, cherry, walnut, beech, and elm are very hard and that most of the evergreens are soft, such as spruce, pine, arbor vitae, as well as the poplars and birches. It is easy to remember that lignum vitae is one of the hardest woods and arbor vitae one of the softest. Some woods, like cedar, chestnut, white birch, ash, and white oak, are easy to split, and wild cherry, sugar maple, hemlock, and sycamore are all but unsplitable. ”

“ It is inspiriting to walk amid the fresh green sprouts of grass and shrubbery pushing upward through the charred surface with more vigorous growth.
Wherever a man goes men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions. [29]
Sometimes an arrowhead is found with the mouldering shaft still attached. (Vide Charles Hubbard.) A little boy from Compton, R. I., told me that his father found an arrowhead sticking in a dead tree and nearly buried in it. Where is the hand that drew that bow? The arrow shot by the Indian is still found occasionally, sticking in the trees of our forest. ”

“ In other plants, as in the common oarweed, the root is composed of a number of stout cords growing out of the frond, which twist round projections of the rock and insert themselves into its holes and crevices, grasping it so firmly as to defy the efforts of the waves to tear the plant from its station. In a few instances the distinction between root, stem and leaf, vanishes altogether, and the plant becomes a mere crust growing over the surface of the rock, or a shapeless mass, either hollow or filled with loose branching fibres. ”

“ Only when it is young does it show like other conifers a heavenward yearning, sharply aspiring with a long quick-growing top. Indeed, the whole tree for the first century or two, or until it is a hundred or one hundred and fifty feet high, is arrowhead in form, and, compared with the solemn rigidity of age, seems as sensitive to the wind as a squirrel’s tail. ”

“ Noble trees they are that fill the hollow. Some have long since passed their prime. Their mighty branches are thick with moss and lichen, and fringed with green tongues of fern. In rifts that time and storm have carved in their huge columns, rowan and bramble and young holly trees are rooted. Grey arms of ivy, almost as broad and vigorous as they, are twined with fatal clasp about their sturdy stems. Where the pathway crosses at the ford, there stands a blasted tree: a giant oak, whose top, wrecked and shattered though it is, rises high above its forest brothers. ”

“ When the wind loosens one from the wiry stem, it goes like an arrow, seed downward. If there is a gale blowing, the seed may be caught up and borne far away in the upper air, before a lull lets it take a downward course, and drive its point into a snowbank, or into the ground. This little feathered arrow may be long or short, depending upon whether it belongs to the red ash, the white ash, or the black; but there is no mistaking an ash tree for any other, once the form of an ash seed is fixed in the mind. ”

“ Many of the mountains are densely wooded to a great height—giant ferns, the rowan, holly, yew, juniper. Above all the arbutus grow in a tangle of profusion, and on rocks where no earth appears. How the steep rocks and crags can give root-hold to this forestry of green is a marvel to the beholder, the roots being simply filaments entwining themselves round crevices in the stone, holding on with a grim tenacity which defies the wildest storm—better even than the forest tree. ”

“ As the Plant grows, it will follow, that at length the Stalk will rise upward, and the Root on the contrary, arch it self downward. Which evidently shews, That it is not sufficient, that the Root hath Earth to shoot into, or that its Motion is only an Appetite of being therein lodged, which way soever that be: but that its nature is, though within the Earth already, yet to change its Position, and to move Downwards. And so likewise of the Trunk, that it rises, when a Seed sprouts, out of the Ground, not meerly because it hath an Appetite of being in the open Aer ”

“ Orange trees are largely dependent upon a shallow root system, the chief roots generally occupying the first four feet below the surface. From this fact we conclude that deep rooting is not necessary to the orange, although unquestionably deep rooting and deep penetration for water are desirable as allowing the tree to draw upon a much greater soil mass and therefore be less dependent upon frequent irrigations and fertilizations. ”

“ The climbing of the arboreal species is almost like flight, if I may so speak—for their skill among the branches surpasses all expectation. Leaps of from eight to ten yards are to them quite possible achievements. From the topmost boughs of a tree they leap to a lower one, which is forcibly bent downwards by the shock, from this at the moment of rebound they give themselves a strong impetus, and, stretching tail and hind-legs out behind them to steer their course, shoot like an arrow through the air. ”

“ The trees grow thickly and irregularly round, and the silvery stems of the ash-trees glisten so as to dazzle the steadiest eye. A rude stone is carved with half-obliterated characters; but the record of the fatal arrow is enough to make the place mournful with the presence of death, and to fill the mind with solemn fancies of life's strange accidents. ”

“ The seeds contain sufficient nutriment to feed the seedling whilst it is developing it roots and first real leaves. We can, of course, go further back in starting our observations of the life progress of the monarch of the forest. We can dissect the insignificant greenish flower of the Oak when the future seed (acorn) is but a single cell, a tiny bag filled with protoplasm. From that early stage to the period when the tree is first ripe for conversion into timber we span a century and a half, equal to two good human lives, and the Oak is but at the point where a man attains his majority. ”

“ Roots are most easily extricated from light soil, and with least fracture. They are large in proportion to stem in dry soil and climate, and when they are situated near the surface of the ground.—A healthy growing plant, of firm fibre, large root, and sturdy short stem of one leader and numerous feeders, is the great desideratum: a large root is the more desirable, as a considerable part of it is generally broken off in transplanting, rendering it disproportioned to the top, which, in consequence, either languishes, or receives deterring cropping. ”

“ This peculiar form is probably produced by the downward growth of aerial roots, like some New Zealand trees whose growth has been traced, and of whose different stages drawings may be seen at the Library of the Linnean Society. These commence their existence as parasitical climbers which take root in the fork of some forest-tree and send down aerial roots which clasp round the stem that upholds them. As these roots increase in size and grow together laterally they cause the death of their foster-parent. ”

“ They are not made of dwarf trees. There are little woods, as well as big woods, of oak, elm, ash, pine, willow, birch, beech, and larch. In some cases the little woods are composed of the growth which shoots up when the principal trunk of the tree has been cut down, but they are generally little merely because they are young, and are cut down for use before they have time to grow into forest-trees. ”

“ He seems not to be aware of the fact, that life is {145} very languid, and growth slow, in any branch horizontally extended, especially when upright stems from the same root are suffered to remain. He also expects the layer-roots to become strong and capable to forage for large trees. That they will, in the oak, ever become so, we think very improbable. Examination of the roots which proceed from oak-layers would place this beyond dispute; if they are, as we presume, fibrous and slender, similar to those produced by apple-layers, no tree or bush of any great size will result. ”

“ I cultivate my orchard with a disc harrow followed by a common harrow, until they begin to bear; plant corn, potatoes or other hoed crop in a young orchard. Seed the bearing orchard to clover. Windbreaks are not essential in eastern Kansas. For rabbits I wrap the young trees; dig borers out. Pruning should be done at the time of planting. After that give the tree all the top it can grow. Never fear but the roots will keep pace with the top. Remember that every time you cut out a large limb you threaten the life of the tree. ”

“ So cunningly was the soil mixed for the molding of the arrow, that the ages since have not caused it to diminish, nor can it be made to support vegetation of a larger growth, or of species common to its surroundings. ”

“ Two- or three-year-old trees, with roots and top well balanced, no forks to split down when the tree gets older, bark smooth and good color, I consider best. I prefer piece-root to whole-root grafts. My experience is that we get better trees on piece roots, as the union is lower down in the ground and the scion throws out roots, which makes the trees healthy and not wholly dependent on seedling roots. I cultivate my orchard till ten or twelve years old, and keep all weeds [Pg 47] and grass away, using an eight-inch plow with one horse next to the trees and backfurrow to every other row ”

“ There is yet a fourth way no less expeditious, and frequently confirmed with excellent success: Bare some of the master-roots of a vigorous tree within a foot of the trunk, or there abouts, and with your axe make several chops, putting a small stone into every cleft, to hinder their closure, and give access to the wet; then cover them with three or four inch-thick of earth; and thus they will send forth suckers in abundance, (I assure you one single elm thus well ordered, is a fair nursery) which after two or three years, you may separate and plant in the Ulmarium, or place designed for them ”

“ All the narrow-leaved evergreens, and many of the broad-leaved trees as well, show what is called definite annual growths; that is, a certain amount of leaf and stem, packed up in the winter bud, spreads out and hardens with woody tissue early in the year, and then, no matter how long the season remains warm, no additional leaves or stem will grow. The buds for the next year's [Pg 30] growth then form and often become quite large before autumn. ”

“ It is often a vexed question what to plant under trees when the space is bare, and sometimes there is an ugly view seen beneath the branches to shut out. Evergreens are the sheet anchor, relieved with a few deciduous shrubs grouped amongst them. ”