ORCHARD PLANTING 65 



back to any height which suits the taste of the fruit 

 grower, from 6 to 30 inches. It should be said, how- 

 ever, that some fruit growers prefer to do this prun- 

 ing after the trees are planted in the orchard. In 

 the opinion of the writer the work may be done more 

 cheaply and expeditiously before planting. It is a 

 great deal easier to prune a thousand peach trees 

 on a saw horse at the sunny side of the barn dur- 

 ing the afternoon than it is to walk all over six 

 acres of new-plowed land and look them up later. 



At this point it may be well worth while to notice 

 the Stringfellow planting method, which has caused 

 a good deal of discussion in this country and even 

 in Europe. It is by no means as unreasonable as 

 it sounds. According to Mr. Stringfellow, the best 

 method of handling trees, and particularly trees of 

 this kind, is to cut off all roots except the tap root, 

 shorten this latter to the length of 4 inches, then cut 

 off all the top, except about 4 inches of the main 

 stem. The tree is thereby reduced to the form of a 

 mere cutting, except that it has portions of both 

 root and stem from the original nursery tree. 



It is, furthermore, specifically recommended that 

 these trees be planted in holes made by a crowbar 

 and not in soil loosely dug up with a shovel. The 

 soil is firmly trodden down about the newly planted 

 stubs. This method has been extensively tried by 

 experimental and practical fruit growers, and al- 

 though it has not proved a great discovery and 

 has not even achieved any special popularity, it has 

 proved to be successful in a large number of cases. 

 On good, light, warm soil it succeeds admirably. Of 

 course, it has some manifest advantages. The trees 

 are easier to handle and the holes are cheaper to 

 dig. While the present writer does not give the 

 Stringfellow method a general recommendation, he 



