STUB -ROOT PRUNING 



239 



enlarged into an hypothesis which has been ap- 

 plied to all plants. The stub-root system is 

 really not a system at all. It is not founded 

 on a body of principles. It is a matter of 

 practice, which will sometimes be useful and 



157. Stringfellow's model. 



158. The wrong ideal. 



sometimes not. Its success depends on local and 

 incidental conditions. It would be as true to say 

 that because many people find the pyramidal 

 training of dwarf pears to be useful, therefore 

 it is necessarily best everywhere and for all 

 species and varieties. 



The accompanying pictures, from Stringfellow s 

 "New Horticulture," show the method of this 

 stub -root pruning. Fig. 157 is the correct form, 

 "cut back just below the collar, and just under 

 the first good side roots." We should "not leave 

 any length of the main or tap-root, with side 



