©24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 18, 
Hope Farm Notes 
“THE STRINGFELLOYV SYSTEM.” 
How about the Stringfellow method of 
planting trees? Are there any large grow¬ 
ers who follow this method of planting? 
If .so ■with what success? Does the Hope 
Farm man practice this method? It is now 
some 20 years I believe since Mr. String- 
fellow first advocated close root-pruning, 
yet all nurserymen that I know of still 
recommend the old way of digging large 
holes and leaving all roots intact. It 
seems as though some one ought to have 
found out by this time if close root pruning 
is as desirable as Mr. Stringfellow claimed 
it to be. Would you advise it for apples 
and cherry? u. J. e. 
Michigan. 
Close Cutting. —The original method as 
advocated by Mr. Stringfellow was to take 
a young tree and trim it as near to a cut¬ 
ting as possible. He cut off the roots to 
mere stubs—perhaps an inch long, and also 
cut the entire top to about 18 inches. The 
proposition was to put this little stick into 
a small hole—one made with a crow-bar 
for peaches or with a post-hole digger for 
apples. The earth was rammed hard 
around the roots. They were to be culti¬ 
vated or hoed until they’ reached fair size 
and then left in sod with the grass cut 
and left on the ground. Thus the String- 
feliow method comprised very close prun¬ 
ing, root and top, planting in very small 
holes and mulching after the tree got to 
fair size. 
Looks Easy. —The theory of all this 
seemed easy to understand if not to be¬ 
lieve. By planting a June-bud peach or a 
yearling apple tree and cutting it back you 
could have full control of the top as it 
grew and shape it to suit yourself. This 
little whip would naturally head close to 
the ground. As for root-pruning String¬ 
fellow argued that the cutting when well 
rooted, gives us the best root system—for 
example that of the currant. In the South 
cuttings of Le Conte pear are rooted much 
like currants and make a fine, long-lived 
tree. By cutting all the roots off and 
planting in a small hole with the soil 
packed hard, when the cut ends callused 
over they would naturally throw tap roots 
down as the currant does. This would lead 
to a deeper root system, and thus a tree 
better able to take care of itself. 
wall, or through a small hole in concrete. 
They can make their way down if need be 
without digging the way for them. I have 
heard of men digging holes as large as a 
hogshead and carefully placing the tree in 
the center with the long roots all spread 
out. They may do it if they want to—I 
shall keep on cutting roots and top down 
and planting in small holes. 
What About It?—A number of growers 
follow Stringfellow’s method to the letter 
and they will argue for it. While com¬ 
paratively few cut as close as Stringfel¬ 
low advocated, thousands have come to 
planting yearling trees and cutting half or 
two-thirds of them away. If the nursery¬ 
men are still advocating large holes and 
“leaving all roots intact,” they must' be 
talking in their sleep. I know some nur¬ 
serymen w r ho have orchards as well as 
nurseries; I know that when they plant 
their own trees they cut them back. In 
fact, some of them say they practiced root- 
pruning before they ever heard of String¬ 
fellow. Some 20 years ago J. H. Hale 
planted his first peach orchard In Georgia. 
He told me that they marked the ground 
off, cut the little trees back to stubs and 
did not dig any holes at all. They just 
drove a spade into the ground, worked it 
back and forth, put the little tree in the 
cut and stamped the earth hard around it. 
There were very few losses, but the or¬ 
chard grew into a famous proposition. Yet 
I hesitate to advise people about this 
Stringfellow plan. Some folks have a way 
of taking half your advice, tacking on a 
few impossible theories of their own, and 
then charging you with the entire failure. 
I once told a man about this close pruning, 
and advised him to plant a dozen trees and 
icatch them. Instead he bought an extra 
lot of trees, cut off all the roots and left 
on all the top. Ilis theory was that if 
those tap-roots 1 told about could get more 
water they ought to provide for more tops. 
Of course every tree left in that way died, 
since the full top demanded more than the 
quarter root could provide. That man 
blamed Stringfellow and the Hope Farm 
man for the failure. I told another man 
how to spray with soluble oil. He added 
a lot of soft soap to the mixture and 
spoiled the entire job—and blamed oil and 
the Hope Farm man. I have heard of a 
case where a doctor told a man that, in 
case of a severe bleeding wound, he should 
tie a string or bandage between the wound 
and the heart and twist it hard to stop 
the flow of blood. A neighbor was cut on 
the head and this man wanted to put a 
rope around the neck and twist it! He was 
obeying instructions all right, but instruc¬ 
tion without sense is dead. 
Crowbar Holes. —To test this theory 
we followed a plan arranged by Mr. String¬ 
fellow himself. June-bud peach trees were 
cut back to stub roots and to about 15 
inches of top. A rough field was staked off 
and holes punched with an ordinary crow¬ 
bar at each stake. The little stick or 
cutting was put down into this hole and a 
mixture of sand and water poured in around 
it. We took the sand from a convenient 
woodchuck’s hole. Then the soil was 
pounded hard around the little tree. The 
object of this was to prevent, if possible, 
the formation of side roots and develop deep 
tap-roots somewhat similar to those on 
clover. This is just what those little trees 
did. They made but a small growth above 
ground the first season, but big tap-roots 
started at the bottom and went straight 
down. In later years we dug some of them 
up and found these big roots five and six 
feet down. In trees planted in large holes 
and with long roots I never have found this 
tap-rooted system. In such cases the roots 
appear to spread cut rather close to the 
surface. 
Tab-Rooted Trees. — I am fully satisfied 
that a root-pruned tree planted in a small 
hole will make a deeper root system than 
where the longer roots are put into a larger 
hole. I do not know why, but it has proved 
so with me. I can easily understand why 
Mr. Stringfellow made this an essential 
part of his system. It stands to reason 
that a tree with a deep tap root can get 
supplies of water which a surface-rooted 
tree cannot touch. We see this by com¬ 
paring the behavior of clover or Alfalfa 
and Timothy in a dry time. Where the 
trees are in a sod of course the surface 
roots have a constant struggle for water 
and food with grass and weed roots. In 
a dry time they must suffer and that is 
Why cultivation, by holding moisture in the 
soil, excels mulching when both peach or¬ 
chards are surface rooted. With those big, 
deep tap-roots however, the tree standing 
in the sod has the advantage of reaching 
deeper supplies of water. I would not 
think of raising fruit under the mulch 
system with surf ace-rooted trees—at least 
on our dry hills. In any event I must say 
that after some years of trial I do not 
think peach trees are well adapted to the 
mulch system—at least in our latitude. I 
have apple and cherry which I think prove 
the truth of a modification of Stringfellow’s 
method, but I think the peach is better for 
moderate cultivation. 
Where It Failed. —The weak spots in 
the Stringfellow system were developed in¬ 
side of a year. As the trees grew and put 
out leaves and branches they presented a 
little sail to the high winds. Soon they 
were whirled around and around until some 
of them lay almost fiat on the ground. 
We staked them up and filled the hole 
Which the wind had made, but it was evi¬ 
dent that the tree had no anchor of roots 
to hold them firmly. A' worse trouble 
developed in Spring. It was a very severe 
season. The lift of the frost and thaw 
pulled out the clover and Alfalfa, and 
even lifted out fence posts in damp soil. 
These little trees, having no side roots to 
fasten them in the soil, suffered. Some of 
them were lifted bodily out and lay on top 
of the ground. In a warmer climate, where 
there is no danger from this lift of the 
frost, the stub-pruned tree will make a 
good one. Up here, we need an anchor or 
more root. Since then we have used a 
modification of the system—leaving from 
three to four inches of root planted in a 
hole just large enough to hold these roots 
without cramping, and with the soil 
packed down hard. Personally. I would 
not go to the trouble of digging a big hole. 
Cases are on record where tree roots have 
dug their way through cracks in a brick 
Farm Notes. —Our first potatoes were 
planted May 4, and the soil was hardly fit 
at that. Early peas went in only a few 
days before. Of course planting is earlier 
in the lighter soil below us, but on our 
cold hills the season is very late. By May 
4 the peach trees on the eastern slope were 
in full bloom. On the west slope they are 
several days behind. This year is a good 
argument in favor of planting on the west 
slopes to escape the late frosts. At the 
same date the crab apples were opening 
their flowers. The early apples were show¬ 
ing a little pink, but the later varieties on 
the hill had scarcely a touch of color. The 
grass is taking hold of the fertilizer, and 
the rye grows one inch or two apparently 
over night. 
This is the kind of a season when most 
of us will block out too much of a job at 
cultivated crops. We are not ready for 
them, and they will all come in a bunch 
later and will be neglected. I shall put in 
what we think we can take care of and put 
the rest into fodder crops. Hay is sure to 
be high and stock ought to be cheap next 
Fall. Corn fodder, millet or Soy bean 
vines will take care of our land and we 
can feed it out next Winter. Of course 
where one has a definite rotation he should 
try to keep it going, but on a fruit farm 
it is different, and it. will often pay better 
to throw in some broadcast fodder crop 
rather than cultivate. 
Lot us suppose you were not quite seven 
years old. You had dug 10 peach tree 
holes at one cent each, 10 cherry, holes at 
1% cent, and nine apple holes at 1 *4 cent. 
There were blisters on your hands to prove 
this labor, and you wanted the money. Be¬ 
fore you could get it you must figure it 
out and tell just bow much the Hope Farm 
man owed you ! There you have the 
serious problem which confronted little 
Redhead on Saturday night. He finally 
mastered it and got his money, but it was 
something of a brain twister. During the 
afternoon we started at our garden. This 
is about one-fifth of an acre on the south 
side of the house. There was a heavy 
coat of manure on it, and this had been 
well chopped up with the Cutaway. Then 
I took Tom and Broker and started to plow 
it. In order that the little boys might 
say they did something at all the work, 
we all took a hand at this plowing. The 
big gray horses are slow and steady, and 
each boy took turns holding the plow 
handles while another drove. The big plow 
put its nose deep into the soil and ripped 
it over, covering the manure and shaking 
up the rich earth. Not one of us would 
enter a plowing contest—except the horses 
—but I suppose, in all tiie song of the 
plow, there never was quite so much hope 
and garden vision put into a dull and hard 
job as redhead and the towlieads imagined 
as they trotted in the furrow. I know 
that we have merely begun the fierce battle 
with weed and bug and blight, but to these 
little farmers such little things are not 
worth considering. They are to raise the 
largest squash, the sweetest melons and 
the finest radish and lettuce that ever 
grew—and when one is under 10 these are 
the things to have in mind. After plowing 
a few rounds the boys would play ball on 
the lawn while I followed the grays in their 
monotonous journey—but that is the fair 
division of labor which time lays out. On 
Monday the boys will put on the lime. 
Then we will work it in with the Cuta¬ 
way—not once, but nearer a dozen times. 
Then will come the Acme and the rakes, 
and the seeds are ready. It is a late sea¬ 
son, but June will bring things along. I 
shall have the children draw a plan and 
know pretty well what is to be planted be¬ 
fore they start. That is more than half 
the battle. h. w. c. 
What Do You 
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TlfHEN you were a boy there was one universal test for a 
roof:—'/will it keep out the weather?" Shingles gave 
that protection, they were cheap—good shingle timber was 
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Roofing today must not only keep off the rain and snow, 
but should offer protection against fire as well. Farmers 
everywhere are now turning naturally to 
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