EXPERIMENT STATION WORK 'wiTH APPLES. 547 



as a foundation stock. In this work choice buds taken from trees that 

 re^ukirly produced an cxccUent (juality of fruit were used. No canker 

 has appeared on these trees during the past ten years. The trees 

 have shown uiuisual thrift and vi^iforand the fi'uit has been uniformly 

 tine. The DeUiware Station" also considers the Spy an ideal stock to 

 top work. 



ROOT PRUNING APPLE TREES. 



Al)<)ut iSl>(> H. M. Stiint^fellow, of Texas, wi'ote a series of ai'tides 

 on fruit growin<i\ in which he urged the advantage and desirability of 

 cutting off all roots of nurser}' trees at transplanting time to mere 

 stul)s and cutting back the stem to about a foot. So man\' were the 

 advantages claimed for this method and so strenuously were they pre- 

 sentjxl that a numl)cr of stations took up the matter and made careful 

 experiments with different orchard fruits to see what there was in it. 

 Oidy the results secured with apples will be considered here. 



At the Georgia Station'' apple trees were pruned to mere knobs and 

 planted in dibble holes on a red loam with a stiff' red-cla^' subsoil, in 

 comparison with trees with whole roots planted in the usual uuuiner 

 in standard holes. The root-pruned trees made fewer, deeper, larger, 

 and more robust roots than the other trees, the depth of penetration 

 for typical roots l)eing 17^ inches against 5)^ inches for the unpruned 

 trees. From this experiment with apple and other fruits it is con- 

 cluded that stub-pruned apple trees will live and flourish under 

 Georgia conditions. 



In some experiments reported bj^ the Oregon Station *■ (n:ery alter 

 nate tree in a row containing 24: trees was i)runed I)}- the Stringfellow 

 S3'stem, while; the others were root-pruned and the tops cut l)ack ;-}() 

 inches. At the end of two years it was practically impossil)le to tell 

 by the eve alone which tree had been pruned according to the String- 

 f<'ll<)\v method and which had not. Two trees set out at the same time, 

 without either top or root pruning, presented a very unthrifty appear- 

 ance in comparison with the pruned trees. 



In one test at the Montana Station'' ♦>(» per cent of stub rooi-pruned 

 trees lived over winter, while 10 per c(Mit of those not root pruned 

 lived. In another experiment at the station' 89 trees of Wealthy and 

 Alexander were stub pruned, stem cut l)ack V2 inches, and the club 

 thus left set with a crowbar. By July the same year 18 per cent of 

 the trees were dead, .50 per cent in good condition, and the rest weak. 

 The fact that 75 piM- cent of the dead trees were of the Alexander 

 variety is taken as indicating marked difference in the ability of the 

 different varieties to withstand this treatment. 



« Delawan' Sta. Bnl. 48. «? Montana Sta. Bui. 24. 



'Mn'orjiia Sta. Bui. 40. 'Montana Sta. Bui. 28. 



'•Oregon Sta. Rpt. 1901, p. :W. 



