86 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



cut back as directed when the tree is set. About a foot of 

 top should be left. More or less makes no difference. If the 

 tree is well staked, three feet may be left without diminishing 

 the growth much. I have had six-foot trees, well staked, to 

 grow finely, but to avoid staking and to secure a new, 

 straight body, it is best to cut back short. Let all shoots 

 grow until a foot or so long, when the straightest and best 

 one should be left and all others rubbed off. I could give 

 the experience and endorsement of quite a number of orchard- 

 ists who have practiced this method with uniform success, 

 but it is necessary to mention only one. Without waiting 

 for the slow demonstration of experience, he at once put it in 

 practice on his great nine hundred-acre peach orchard of one 

 hundred thousand trees, which he was about to plant in 

 Georgia. I wrote him recently as to how it turned out. 

 Here is the reply : 



Dear Sir: I am glad to state that the close root-pruning, which 

 was practiced when planting our entire orchard of one hundred thou- 

 sand trees at Fort Valley, Georgia, proved to be the most successful 

 operation we ever practiced, less than one-half of one per cent, of 

 the trees failing to grow, and all making the most vigorous and even 

 growth I have ever seen in any orchard in America. The orchard is 

 now three years old, and gave us an enormous crop of fruit this past 

 season. I am thoroughly in favor of this system of root-pruning. 

 Yours very truly, J. H. HALE. 



And now, in conclusion, in view of the fact that my indi- 

 vidual efforts for eight years have amounted to practically 

 nothing, the question is, how to bring about, in the general 

 handling of trees, this radical but needed reform. I see but 

 two ways. The first through the medium of the nurseryman 

 and his catalogue, and the second through the bulletins of 

 the experiment stations. 



Quite a number of nurserymen, some of them the most 

 extensive in the Union, have written me that they are now 

 practicing this method exclusively, and with perfect success, 

 in all their nursery transplanting operations, but they dare 

 not advise the people to adopt it, for fear of being accused of 

 trying to induce them to kill their trees, so as to sell them 

 more next season. Now, let all of them make mention of the 

 subject in their future catalogues. Next, let the state experi- 



