The National Nurseryman. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK. 
Copyright, 1900, by the National Nurseryman Publishing Co. 
“ The successful men of America owe their prosperity to advertising.”— Erastus Wiman. 
Vol. VIII. ROCHESTER, N. Y., APRIL, [900. No. = 
NATURE’S METHOD. 
H. M. STRINGFELLOW AGAIN AT THE FRONT WITH THE 
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF A NOVEL IDEA. 
He Plants a Large Orchard of Peach, Pear and Apple In Virgin 
Sod Without Plowing—Drove One and a Half Inch Holes With 
Steel Rod and Sledge Hammer for the Root.Pruned 
Trees—A Fine Growth Well Under Way. 
Editor National Nurseryman : 
I have just been out to my orchard ofi ,000 peach, 1,000 pear 
and 1,000 apple, set out a month ago. The trees are all coming 
out beautifully, though the wise acres around here said I would 
never see a sprout. I have been trying for ten years to get some 
one to test my theory of hard ground and no plowing or cultivat¬ 
ing for close root pruned trees, but I could get no one, so I 
moved up here expressly to demonstrate the truth of my asser¬ 
tions on a scale large enough to convince the most skeptical. 
I drove i^-inch holes with a steel rod and a 10-pound sledge 
hammer into virgin unbroken prairie sod 12 inches deep and 
finished 3,000 holes in a little over four days. I then placed 
the close root pruned trees in a wagon with a boy to drive 
while I dropped a tree at each hole, and two men carried a 
row each on either side of the wagon. I had a barrel of water 
and half a load of fine soil also in the wagon, and the men had 
two buckets a-piece, and a half-pint tin cup. They poured a 
handful of soil and a cup of water at the same time into each 
hole after placing the tree therein, which filled it up and settled 
the earth well around the roots. We set the whole 3,000 in 
less than three days, the first day 750, the second, 1,000, and 
the third, 1,250; the men had then caught on. After planting 
we ran a small kitchen knife around each tree, cutting the 
grass in a circle about two inches. I then had them hoed 
lightly for one foot each way around each tree just deep 
enough to kill the grass. This orchard will be mowed twice a 
year and the grass left on the ground. Every tree is coming 
fine, and you’ll see an orchard that is an orchard in a few 
years. 
This is practically Nature’s method with all her trees. She 
stands them on the firm, unbroken soil with neither roots or 
tops, which is practically what I do, the topsail being cut back 
to within six inches of the ground, and roots cut entirely back 
to the stem. Man reverses all this, with his big, deep holes, 
long roots and annual plowing, to kill the surface roots, which 
are the very ones most essential to the tree when it begins to 
bear. Nature’s trees and all chance seedling fruit trees live 
long, are healthy and productive; man’s are diseased, short¬ 
lived and fail of fruit two years out of three. 
You will see that the success of my venture means big things 
for the nurseryman. I have already doubled their sales by the 
economy in planting time and will reduce the expense much 
more when I demonstrate my success, which is bound to 
follow. 
The world wants fine fruit and wants it cheap. By my plan 
it can be grown at a nominal cost and give the grower a profit 
at prices that will bring its consumption within reach of all. 
Look out for prosperous times for the nurseryman in the near 
future. H. M. Stringfellow. 
Lampasas, Tex., March 9, 1900. 
PROPAGATING RED CEDAR. 
Some enterprising horticulturist or nurseryman of Western 
Washington, says a Western exchange, may find a profitable 
occupation in collecting and propagating the native red cedar 
which thrives so luxuriantly here, and ship the young plants 
to Nebraska and other states for wind breaks for orchards. 
C. S. Harrison, of York, Nebraska, in a recent number of the 
Western Fruit Grower, speaks of a bed of one-eighth of an 
acre of red cedar seedlings there, estimated to be worth 
$10,000. At a quarter of a cent each for young plants there 
is a fortune for the grower in this state. Arrangements could 
be made to sell in wholesale lots to Eastern nurserymen. 
OLD SCOTCH NURSERIES. 
The Annandale Observer, published at Annan, Scotland, 
reproduces from an exchange a description of the nurseries of 
Palmer & Son, Ltd., at Annan, from which we extract the 
following : 
It is now about seventy years since the firm under notice was estab¬ 
lished, at what is termed the Home Nursery. The dimensions of the 
Home Nursery are small, and the first extension was to the Moor Nur¬ 
sery, and at a later date, a considerable number of acres were acquired 
near the Railway Station. Although the Home Nursery is small, it is 
extremely interesting, and here, by means of budding, grafting, cut - 
tings, and seedlings, the propagation of conifers;, rhododendrons, 
aucubas, hollies, sweet bays, cotoneasters, pernettyas, &c., is carried 
on extensively in pits and frames. At the Moor Nurseries roses are the 
leading line, the soil oeing well adapted for them, and we also noted 
many fine specimens of cupressus lawsoniana. Kilmarnock and Amer¬ 
ican weeping willows are a line for which the firm has acquired a good 
reputation, and a considerable portion of the Moor Nursery is devoted 
to them, and here we also found poplars, alders, and other trees in 
variety, in all suitable sizes for planters. 
As already stated, the largest nurseries are near the station, and here 
there are many acres of beds of forest tree seedlings, and in addition, 
many acres are transplanted trees and shrubs, all remarkable for their 
clean growth and robust constitution. In one square we noted sixty- 
four beds of seedling larch, averaging 50,000 in each bed, and in 
another square, 1 , 000,000 one year ash. These two instances we give 
as typical of what may be seen multiplied many times over in passing 
from one square to another, every square containing its quota of spruce 
•r larch, or oak, or beech, and so on to the end of the long list of varie¬ 
ties grown in endless numbers by this old-established and enterprising 
firm. 
