Vol. LXVIII. No. 4001. 
THE STRINGFELLOW 
METHOD OF PLANTING. 
ROOT PRUNED TREES IN SMALL 
HOLES. 
Roots to the Water Level. 
Will you give a brief account 
of the Strihgfellow method of 
setting apple trees? j. ji'c. 
Salem, N. Y. 
This method is named for 
H. M. Stringfellow, of Texas, 
who for many years has advo¬ 
cated it. At first his plan or 
theory was ridiculed by the 
scientific men and large prac¬ 
tical growers. Now, however, 
opinion is changing and it 
seems to be agreed that Mr. 
Stringfellow’s plan, with some 
modifications, is well suited to 
many conditions. Briefly 
stated, Mr. Stringfellow based 
his system on the following: 
1. Very close pruning of 
both top and root. 
2. Planting in small holes 
with the soil packed and 
jammed hard about the roots. 
3. Little, if any, pruning un¬ 
til the tree came in bearing, or 
large branches began to inter¬ 
fere. 
4. After the tree comes in 
bearing or forms its top in a 
natural way no cultivation or 
stirring of the soil, but "mulch¬ 
ing.” This is to be done by 
cutting such grass and weeds 
as they grow and leaving on 
the ground, or hauling straw, 
manure or other material to be 
spread on the ground. 
Anyone can see that this is 
in all respects radical advice, 
and greatly opposed to the 
rules for planting given by hor¬ 
ticultural teachers and success¬ 
ful growers. For many years 
we had been told to dig very 
large holes, be sure to save all 
the "fibrous” roots and leave 
much more root and top when 
planting. When the first peach 
trees were planted on Hope 
Farm the boys were so anxious 
to do what the “authorities” 
told them that they planted 
the trees just as they came 
from the nursery — without 
trimming an inch either root 
or top! The object in cutting 
back the top was to give the 
growers a better chance to 
shape tree properly. With a tree 
cut back to a single stem buds 
can be left so as to give almost 
any desired shape. If the 
crotch is left as it grew in the 
nursery, the head will form 
from it, and may and may 
not be what the grower wants. 
St ringfellow reasoned that 
the best model for practical 
growth of a tree was that 
made by a rooted cutting— 
with which all growers are fa- 
NEW YORK, JULY 3. 1909. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
miliar. Such cuttings will, 
when put in the soil, form a 
callus at the end and send out 
strong, deep tap roots. The 
root of the tree, cut back so 
that all side roots or, at best, 
mere stubs, were left and 
planted in a small hole, gave 
a close imitation 'of a cutting. 
In parts of the South some 
varieties of pears and other 
fruits will root from cuttings 
much like the wood of grape 
or currant. Thus the object 
of root pruning and small hole 
planting was to obtain, if pos¬ 
sible, a deeper and more vigor¬ 
ous root system. Naturally, if 
the tree was to be mulched or 
grown in sod, this deep tap- 
rooted growth would be a 
benefit. The object of letting 
the tree alone to form its own 
head was to permit a strong 
and natural growth—thus being 
both above and below ground 
much like a seedling tree. 
At first serious objection 
was made to Mr. Stringfel¬ 
low’s plan, because it was 
claimed these close-pruned 
roots would decay. The au¬ 
thorities said that the plan 
might work in the warmer 
soils of the South, or in light¬ 
er soils at the North, but with¬ 
out giving it a trial, they pre¬ 
dicted failure on most of the 
orchard soils in Northern 
States. It seemed strange that 
men should continue to talk of 
the great value of a mass of 
.fibrous roots when it must be 
easy for anyone to see that 
these little roots dry up and 
die a short time after the trees 
are dug from the nursery. It 
became evident, however, that 
some of the most progressive 
planters had learned that it 
paid them well to cut the trees 
back severely. To-day, as com¬ 
pared with 15 years ago, I 
believe most trees are cut back 
twice as much as formerly, 
and I think this is largely due 
to the influence of Stringfel¬ 
low’s teaching. 
About eight years ago we 
began experimenting with the 
Stringfellow method, using ap¬ 
ple, peach, pear, plum and 
quince. During this time we 
have planted, all told, some 
4,000 trees, and have had oc¬ 
casion to dig up several hun¬ 
dred for examination. Some 
were planted with all the roots 
removed, while on others we 
left stubs of varying length. 
With the exception of a few 
planted with long roots in 
. '.urge holes for comparison, all 
were put in small holes—just 
large enough to contain the 
roots. Oiie of the first plant- 
