STUB ROOT PRUNING. 



237 



the date of conviction ; and such trial shall be 

 heard, tried, adjudicated upon and decided, with- 

 out the intervention of a jur\% at such time and 

 place as the court or judge hearing whe trial ap- 

 points, within thirty days from the date of con- 

 viction, unless the said court or judge extends the 

 time for hearing and decision beyond such thirty 

 days ; and in all other respects not provided for 

 in this Act, the procedure under Part LVIII of 

 The Criminal Code, 1892, shall, so fai as appli- 

 cable, apply. 



16. Any pecuniary penalty imposed under this 

 Act shall, when recovered, be payable one-half to 

 the informant or complainant, and the other half 

 to Her Majesty. 



17. The Governor in Council may make such 

 regulations as he considers necessarj' in order to 

 secure the efficient operations of this Act; and 

 the regulations so made shall be in force from the 

 date of their publication in The Canada Gazette, 

 or from such other date as is specified in the pro- 

 clamation in that behalf. 



STUB ROOT PRUNING. 



about the Stringfellow method 

 '^X^l^'^t"^ °^ pruning trees, trees, which 

 ^^M^*] is the result of some experi- 

 ments in close root pruning by H. M. String- 

 fellow, of Texas. He cuts off the top of a 

 transplanted tree to say 12 to 18 inches 

 high, and cuts off nearly all the roots, leav- 

 ing only stubs an inch or two long. The 

 ideas assumed by Mr. Stringfellow are that : 

 (i) Seedling, non-transplanted trees are 

 longer lived, hardier and healthier than the 

 trees of orchards ; (2) that this superiority 

 is largely due to the presence of a tap root 

 system, and (3) that the nearer a trans- 

 planted tree is reduced to the form of a 

 young seedling or cutting, the greater is its 

 tendency to develop a tap root system. 



We do not believe in the theory nor in the 

 assumption upon which he grounds it, and 

 experiments made at Cornell University do 

 not support it. The fact that a tree that has 

 had its roots closely cut off may live and 

 throw out fresh roots, is no argument that 

 it would not have done better if the roots 

 had not been cut. 



Mr. Stringfellow, however, is very per- 

 sistent in his theory, and means to put it 

 into practice, as may be seen from the fol- 

 lowing clipping : 

 Orchardists and nurserymen everywhere have 



been intensely interested in the revolutionary 

 method of fruit-tree planting, advocated by Mr. 

 H. M. Stringfellow, who, with the courage of his 

 convictions, is now putting his theory into prac- 

 tice on his recently purchased land near Lampasis, 

 Texas. The following extract from a letter to 

 President Ramsey, of the Texas Horticultural 

 Society is, as the latter says: "The first chapter 

 in the history of an orchard that is going to be 

 talked about and watched closer than any that 

 has been planted since the days when Adam was 

 superintendent of a truck patch and home or- 

 chard." 



Mr. Stringffellow writes, in part : "I laid off my 

 rows with a strong line and tags tied securely 

 where the trees were to stand. I then measured 

 and marked the ends of the rows, the rows being 

 just long enough to allow of stretching the line 

 nicely. This was all on virgin, unbroken prairie 

 sod. I then got a two- inch iron bar, sharpened at 

 the end, and three and a-half feet long and also a 

 ten-pound sledge ha.mmer. I had two men ; one 

 held and carried the bar, setting it at each tag, 

 while the other man drove it down about one foot. 

 It was heavy work and they had to alternate every 

 five or six holes. Well, the first day I wore that 

 iron bar off to 18 inches and drove 900 or so holes. 

 The next day I tried a one and a-half inch bar and 

 battered that away by night and drove about as 

 many ; the third day I got a one-inch steel bar, 

 and that stood much better and drove about i , 200 

 holes. I then root-pruned all the trees and stuck 

 them down to the bottom, pears in the larger 

 holes and apples in the smaller. I had a wagon 

 with a barrel of water and a half load of fine silt 

 from a creek bed, with a boy to drive and wait on 

 us. I dropped the trees, carrying two buckets, 

 one ot the earth and the other water, and a small 

 tin cup. After sticking the tree in the hole they 

 took and poured them slowly into the holes at the 

 same time until filled up. This settled the earth 

 nicely about the roots and stem. We set the 

 whole 3,000 in less than three days. Every tree 

 is growing fine. * * * Now, you just look out 

 for the finest, healthiest and most productive 

 orchard in the country." 



