There is apparently a very common belief that in most trees considerable quantities of the carbohydrates, that have been stored in the lower trunk and in the roots, move up as growth starts in the spring and are used in shoot and leaf formation. The arguments which seem most commonly to be put forward as proof of such an upward transfer are that quantities of food are stored in the xylem tissues; that these are present in soluble form in the water-conducting vessels at the time spring growth commences; and that these foods rapidly disappear at about the time of this rapid shoot development. From these facts it would seem reasonable to think that the food had moved up with the water to the growing shoots, but, as shown in a recent paper (Curtis, I920), the mere presence of soluble foods in water-conducting tissues cannot be considered as proof that the foods move with the water. In fact, it was shown that there is no appreciable longitudinal transfer of soluble foods through the xylem. Some ringing experiments of Hartig's (I858) have also been considered as proof of the movement of foods from the roots to the growing shoots. At intervals of eight days from the first of April, i857, until the middle of September of the same year, he ringed young oak trees of about the diameter of one's arm. The rings were two inches broad and were situated four feet from the ground. Some trees were also cut down at the time of ringing, but he does not state whether these were cut early or late in the season. Observations made in the spring of I858 showed that all trees ringed previous to June 30, I 857, had lost the starch from below the rings, while those ringed after June 30 contained starch. The starch from these also, however, had disappeared by the fall of I858. As the starch had not disappeared from some of the roots of the felled trees, he concluded that the food stored in the roots normally moves up with the water through the xylem and is used in shoot growth. As has been previously shown, no appreciable quantities of food move longitudinally through the xylem and it seems very probable that the food below the rings disappeared because it was used in root growth and in diameter growth of the trunk. The only point tending to contradict this is that in some of the felled trees the starch did not disappear. This lack of