ROOT-PRUNING HOW DEMONSTRATED. 97 



method of treating trees, and of recently bringing the system 

 prominently before the public, is due to Mr. H. M. String- 

 fellow, of Hitchcock, Texas, near Galveston. Mr. Stringfel- 

 low is a well-informed gentleman, a college graduate, a care- 

 ful and close observer of nature, and is an enthusiastic, 

 sagacious fruit-grower and nurseryman on the coast plains 

 of Texas. Fourteen years ago he planted a Le Conte and 

 Kieffer pear orchard, which was pronounced by about sixty 

 members of the American Horticultural Society who passed 

 through it in February, 1890, to be the finest orchard of the 

 kind they had seen, and probably the finest in America, for 

 its uniformity of growth and the utility and beauty of its 

 training. From the first of this orchard enterprise, Mr. 

 Stringfellow began a study of tree growth, and made many 

 tests which proved to him that our old methods of trans- 

 planting and training were very erroneous, and he concluded 

 that the nearer we can approach to a seedling when our trees 

 are set, the longer lived, healthier and more productive they 

 will be. 



His tests were all made in the coast regions of Texas, 

 where pear trees grow freely from cuttings ; and, in fact, cut- 

 tings of most trees grow easily. But the evidence of others 

 shows that root-pruning succeeds in various parts of our 

 country. 



Samuel Edwards, of North Peoria, 111., gives an account 

 in the Fruit- Growers' Journal, of a lot of three-year-old 

 assorted trees he bought from a Rochester (N. Y.) nursery- 

 man, and which were so delayed on the road and so frozen 

 that the roots were badly damaged. He cut off the tops to 

 about two feet and the roots close to the bodies, and set 

 them out as an experiment. He says they all grew finely, 

 making handsome, fruitful trees. 



O. E. Hine, of Vienna, Va., told me that several years 

 ago he received a number of two-year old silver maple trees, 

 with badly mutilated roots. He cut away most of the roots, 

 reduced the tops and planted them. They have proved to 

 be fine, thrifty trees. 



A. W. Harrison, of Alexandria, Va. , tells me that when 

 7 HORT. 



