Vol. LXI. No. 2729 
NEW YOKK, MAY 17, 1902 
$1 PER YEAR 
A TRIAL OF THE STRING FELLOW METHOD. 
Planting Trees in Small Holes. 
We have many acres of abandoned farm lands in 
Rhode Island, sandy loam, well adapted to fruit. We 
can grow our own varieties, which are plentiful, of 
better quality and flavor than the same can be pro¬ 
duced elsewhere. Last Fall I bought 120 one-year 
apple trees; 40 Baldwins, 40 Russets and 40 Rhode 
Island Greenings. The man who built our barnyard 
had a very singular idea, in that he built a drain to 
get rid of all the surplus water and leaehings. This 
I have since had stopped up, but for many years it 
has been discharging into a hollow nearby. When 
we want some good rich earth for tree holes I gener¬ 
ally go to this hollow. So we sent the two-horse 
team there and filled up, and early in November, with 
a crowbar, started with 
our apple trees for a 20- 
acre field, which was 
once in rye, about 20 
years ago, but in our sys¬ 
tem of farming had been 
in nothing since. A little 
sweet fern, some attempt 
at grass, not enough to 
keep a cow; just plain 
abandoned, and before 
many years would prob¬ 
ably begin to come in 
with cedars, pines and 
birches in self-protection. 
The soil is kindly, early 
and dry; sandy loam. My 
proposition was to try 
the Stringfellow system 
on this field, without 
plowing, and so we did. 1 
planted the apples 50x50 
feet, having plenty of 
room. The ground hav¬ 
ing been staked off, my 
assistant made a hole 
with his crowbar, which 
he widened by swaying 
the crowbar to and fro, 
so as to give 2 Vz to three 
inches width at top. The 
man with the team then 
put one-half of a large 
shovelful of the rich dark 
muck earth from the 
barn drain, into the bot¬ 
tom of the hole, and I 
rammed it down well and 
tight, with a special stick 
cut for the purpose, and 
then set in the young 
apple tree with its fine- 
spreading system of roots 
all cut back or removed 
to two inches; more rich earth from the wagon to fill 
the hole and all around, and as the earth was going 
in I rammed it down tight on all sides, so I think 1 
left no air in those crowbar holes, and they were filled 
with rich earth. Then my assistant gathered up with 
the spade the clods or tufts of grass and stubble 
around the little tree, and turned them upside down 
around it, and with more earth from nearby we made 
on top of that a little mound around each tree, all 
rammed solid by stamping with the feet. I think that 
is the whole story of the planting of the apples, ex¬ 
cept that we carried them about the field in a large 
pail of water, but no water was used in the holes. 
The tops were cut back to one or two feet the next 
week in April. One tree in every row of 10 was plant¬ 
ed in a nicely-dug old-fashioned hole, with roots 
nicely spread out. and will be treated in all other 
respects the same as the root-pruned. Next I bought 
150 grapevines two years old, 50 each of Brighton, 
Diamond and Worden. These we planted the same 
week at 15x15 feet in the same manner as the apples, 
in the same field. The roots were in two sets, upper 
and lower; I cut them both back to one inch. Here 
also we planted some full roots for a check. We 
mounded them all up well, and cut them back to one 
bud at time of planting and came away. We have 
two miles of shore front on Narragansett Bay, and 
eel-grass sea-weed for bedding and mulch. I have 
told our man to go to the shore and get enough of 
this to mulch around each tree and vine, and allow 
no grass nor weeds to grow near them. He is to mix 
a little stable manure into the eel-grass, so the mulch 
will have some fertilizer value, as it has very little of 
itself. It will be put on wet, but soon dries. It con¬ 
tains some salt and a trace of potash. My intention 
is to follow this up another season with top dressings 
of kainit, phosphate, etc., as may be required. We 
are prepared to fertilize those trees liberally every 
year, to prune them well and to spray them, and if 
we can make a success we have 100 acres of similar 
land waiting. w. b. w. 
R. N.-Y.—Our own trees planted on this Stringfel¬ 
low system last Fall are practically all alive and are 
now starting an excellent growth. We expect to head 
them very low and keep the ground well mulched 
without cultivation. Just what they will come to of 
course remains to be seen. 
INSECTS COST MORE THAN DIAMONDS 
And Perhaps Very Cheap at That Price. 
Last December notice was given that C. L. Marlatt, 
Assistant Entomologist of the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, had found a parasite of the San 
.Tosd scale in China and had safely sent samples of it 
to this country for trial. This friend of the fruit 
grower is a little ladybird beetle whose larva eats the 
scale insects. There were 17 of the bugs sent last. 
Fall, 16 of which arrived in good condition. They were 
put in the insectary at Washington, where they have 
had every attention. Before the time for them to lay 
eggs this Spring all died but two females, which, for¬ 
tunately, proved to be fertile. They have laid eggs 
freely, and many of them have hatched. I saw the 
little larvae to-day (May 3) feeding on the scale in¬ 
sects that had been pro¬ 
vided for them. They are 
on peach trees, both in¬ 
doors and out, but care¬ 
fully caged, and there are 
not far from 100 of them. 
As some are nearly full 
grown it will not be long 
before they will pu¬ 
pate, and then emerge as 
little black beetles ready 
to produce another brood. 
By next Fall it is expect¬ 
ed to have many hun¬ 
dreds, some of which will 
be sacredly kept in the 
Government insect ary 
and others placed in or- 
c h a r d s affected with 
scales, where they will 
have a fair test as to how 
they will endure our cli¬ 
mate and other condi¬ 
tions, which they must 
meet, if they are to serve 
the purpose for which 
they were imported. 
The two parent beetles 
that survived have cost 
the Government in money 
for the expenses of the 
trip to secure them, of 
about a year, and the sal¬ 
ary of their discoverer, 
about $2,000 each; which 
is a small price compared 
with their real value, if 
they prove as fatal to the 
San Josd scale in America 
as they have in Asia. 
They devour the white 
peach scale and other 
species, too, as they have 
already begun to do in 
the insectarv and out ot doors. It is not declared by 
Mr. Marlatt, or other Government entomologists, that 
this insect will surely rid us of the San Jose or other 
scales, but, they believe that it may keep them in 
check. It does this under similar climatic conditions 
in China and Japan. 
Some entomologists have inclined to the belief that 
this ^siatic ladybird beetle is only a form of one of 
our native species, and have stated so publicly; but 
the Asiatic species is smaller in the size of the perfect 
insect and quite different in the larval stage. More¬ 
over, it is far more voracious and prolific, which are 
very Important matters. Unlike most of our Ameri¬ 
can ladybird beetles, which are generally red, these 
two are black, with a small red spot on each of the 
LEAF AND BLOOM OF GERANIUM ALPHONSE RICOARD. Fig. 133. See Page 354. 
