EXPEKIMKNT STATION WORK WITH APPLES. 549 



still) pniiM'd. Ill imotluT test lo two-yciir-olil stiil)-))iiiiu'cl apple trees 

 were pluiiteil in conipaiisoii with lo trees root pruned to ;> inches. All 

 the trees pruned to H inches lived; one of the stub-pruned ti'ees died. 

 The followino- sprino- jialf of the trees of each lot were duy- and exam- 

 ined. Two out of live of the .l-inch root-piuned trees were first class, 

 while none of the stul)-pruned trees were first class. 



In these experiments the root systems formed on the diti'erently 

 pruned trees were carefully studied. The new roots were found to 

 arise most easily from the ends of the smallest roots and from those 

 portions of larue roots nearest the orowin<j;" tips. The tihrous roots, 

 when uninjured, were first to throw out new absorbing feeders. The 

 direction of growth of the root system was not found to be more 

 downward on the stub-pruned trees than on those pruned to 3 and 8 

 inches, respectively, either on sandy loam or heav}^ clay. Nor were 

 there any more tap roots formed on the stub-pruned trees than on 

 those pruned longer. 



The general conclusion is drawn from these experiments that Dela- 

 ware growers should prune the roots of fi'uit trees to a length of 3 to 

 5 inches at transplanting. "Shorter roots present no emphatic advan- 

 tages and longer roots are useless and expensive to set in the ground." 



in a bulletin from the Washington Station" it is stated tliat at that 

 station the Stringfellow system of root pruning has not indicated 

 any advantage for the metiiod. R. Goethe'' reports some German 

 experiments in which some 15 apple trees were root pruned according 

 to the usual method and 15 stub pruned according to the Stringfellow 

 method. Fourteen of the trees in the first lot grew well and made a 

 good root system, while of the 15 pruned according to the Stringfellow 

 method 1'2 died outright. In a test of the Stringfellow method of 

 planting on the Rural New Yorker trial grounds,'' out of 13'2 apple 

 trees planted and given no attcMition other than a manure mulch, 37 

 have died. The others have made a one-eighth to one-fourth normal 

 growth on the average. Check trees planted with whole roots showed 

 75 per cent of a normal growth. A writer in New .Jersey'' states that 

 he set out 1,000 trees root i)runed according to the Stringfellow method, 

 and that at the end of the first season 8<H) of them wcM-e dvnd and the 

 remainder had made a very poor growth. 



A careful review of all the available data, experiment station and 

 othei'wise, on the subject shows that in some localities the Stringfellow 

 method of pruning apple trees at transj,)lanting time gives entirely 

 satisfactory results, and trees thus treated make as good a giowtli as 

 when ti-eated by the usual methods. The Georgia, Oregon, and Rhode 



"Wasliiii<rt<)n Rta. Bui. 52. 



''Her. K. Leliraiist. Weill, ()b.Mt-u. (iarU'iihau, < ieiseiilieiin, I'.tlKt- I'.iOl, p. IS. 



cRiiral New Yorker, Gl (1902), No. 2745, p. »)(«;. 



'/Rural New Yorker, <)2 (li)03). No. 27tK), p. (itil. 



