94 Peach-Growing 



feature of the method consists in pruning off all the roots, 

 leaving only the merest stubs an inch, or even less in length. 

 The top of the tree is also cut to a single stem 12 to 18 inches 

 high. The most important claims for this system were ease 

 of planting, vigor and strength of growth, longer life, a more 

 downward course for the roots, and, because of the latter, the 

 roots less subject to the varying influences of heat, cold, and 

 drought. 



In the early nineties, while this method was being some- 

 what strenuously exploited, a number of experiment stations 

 as well as commercial peach-growers made some compre- 

 hensive tests of it, in some instances planting a series of trees 

 with the roots pruned different lengths ranging from the 

 usual practice to the opposite extreme of the Stringfellow 

 method. In the main, the results were adverse for this 

 method, only the first claim being realized. Since the roots 

 were all pruned off to the nearest stubs, the holes were made 

 with a crowbar, and obviously with very small cost. Many 

 of the trees so planted failed to grow ; others grew, but not 

 as well as those planted in the usual way. As a rule, the 

 method gave better results in the South than in the North. 

 In some sections in the South it has been used successfully 

 to some extent on a commercial scale. The results are 

 summed up thus : " Reviewing all the data available, it 

 would seem that in certain localities, particularly in warm, 

 moist, loamy soils, the stub-root method of pruning back the 

 trees may give entirely satisfactory results, but station evi- 

 dence is generally in favor of less severe pruning. It has 

 been clearly shown, however, that leaving on all the long 

 roots of peach nursery stock is unnecessary and useless."^ 



1 Smith, C. B., "Experiment Work with Peaches," in Ann. Rept. 

 Office of Exp. Stations, year ending June 30, 1906, pp. 416-419. 



