The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1899-10-11
The Stringfellow Method.

Lie GoOfSld EXPERIMENT. SCdUlOu HAS
published bulletin, containing the eX-
perience of Henry e. Doseh, of Ore
gOn:
cat the Fruit Growers Convention,
held at Lafayette, Oregon, in the
summer of 1895, 1 called attention to
this method and urged those present to
experiment along this line and report
results, but the very idea was hooted
at by our most advanced horticulturists
and nurserymen, so dropped the mat
ter, having resolved, however, to give
the method a thorough trial myself,
and prove either it's correctness or fail
ure under our climatic and soil cOndi-
tons. For this purpose 1 procured
fifty trees, one, two and three years
old, of pears, apples, prunes, plums and
cherries grated on different varieties
Of roots. l did this to give the method
a thorough and complete trial, and if
possible see if one or the other roots
would do better; also if the age Of the
trees made any difference. I then cut
away every root, leaving but three
inches-less would have been better
on the stubs and removed every lit
tie fiber, so they were perfectly bare;
the tops were cut off to thirty inches in
height, all alike, and set in two rows,
three feet apart in the row and five
feet between the rows. The first year
the trees made but few inches
growth, which | attributed and cor
rectly so, to the fact that they. were
growing roots; yet l had my fears, as
my soil is heavy, stubborn, clay soil,
undertake with hard pan, and very
dry season followed. [ hOed and Guilt
waited them the same as | would have
done if planted in the orchard but
when fall came | had about concluded
it was a failure and paid no further at
tention to them. The following spring,
when preparing my garden, where they
were planted, I started to pull them
up, when to my surprise I could not do
it. Upon examining the little things,
| noticed the buds were swelling, so l
concluded to allow them to remain as
before; and when they did begin to
grow thought they never would stop;
the prune tree grew n@ht feet, the ap-
pie and pear trees three and four feet
The Fruit GrOwei = convention met
that year in July at Newburg, to
which I took a number of these trees,
and naturally, like myself, all present
were very much aStOniShed, but the
proofs admitted Of no argument. The
most surprising fact of all was not the
large top growth these trees made, but
the perfect root system they had form
ed. We all know that most nursery
trees have One-sided roots, difficult to
replant and in our clay soils they
spread out close to the surface in grow
ing and are constantly torn by the
pillow, producing innumerable sprouts.
In the Stringfellow method this is all
changed; the pruned trees throw out
three or four strong roots from each
stub, which strike diagonally down in
to the soil. Those which I dug to eX-
hibit at Newburg had grown roots
down into this heavy clay soil over
four feet, penetrating the hard pan,
and throwing out hundreds of lateral
rOOtlets, but none grow near the sur
face, hence out of the reach of the
plOW. A more perfect and symmetri-
cal root system could not be formed.
am confident if plum stock is used
for our prune trees, care being taken
to cut away the buds at the union
when pruning the roots for planting
under this system no SprOuting will fol
low, thus eliminating the principal OBJ
lection to the use of plum stock for
prunes. which stock is conceded to be
the hardest, natural and most suitable
for our moist, clay soils. No sprouts
occurred on those trees [ experimental
with.
AS To what aged free is best adaDted