THE MONTHLY BULLETIN". 81 



was less in bulk than the fruit pit, has now been reversed; the lemon 

 tree no longer sends forth towering branches as if it were a forest 

 tree, nor is the fruit rank and coarse, as was the wood groAvth ; it has 

 been turned by the skill and art of the pruner to form growths in 

 abundance, specially adapted to produce merchantable lemons. 



Renewal of the best fruiting wood should be a prime object with thi' 

 orange grower. Tf this is neglected — and the orange tree has a natural 

 habit of growth in sending up many rank shoots along each branch 

 that affords excuse for neglecting this work, so well done with peach 

 and apricot trees, and which results so profitably in such trees — the 

 neglect, which does not seem neglect for a good many years, will result, 

 as many of us know by experience, in weak, terminal growths all around 

 the exterior of the tree, and, for a time in strong, upward growths 

 from and near the top parts of the tree, and in a dark, fruitless exterior. 

 The fruits may be numerous on such weak foundations, but they will 

 be of a whitish yellow color, and of unmerchantable sizes, while those en 

 the rank growth will partake of the character of the wood it grows 

 upon. 



Looking at most orange trees as they will appear in most orchards, 

 in the spring of the year — save in exceptional trees — we see an outward 

 surface of new and shining leaves and a multitude of fresh new shoots 

 issuing from the axil of every leaf and abounding in a wealth of bloom, 

 a very beautiful and promising vision of profit to come ; so it will 

 appear, year after year, and we scarcely dare to mutilate their beauty 

 with tools of steel. A new annual growth comes forth from every such 

 branch, which, fruiting, droops heavily and covers the growth of the 

 year before, which then fruits more sparingh^ 



As yea>rs go on the covered branch ceases to fruit at all, and, at last 

 it dies, overcome by its successor. Still, growth continues from the 

 new one, which fruits well for several years, burying, like its prede- 

 cessor, what was once the best part of the tree. 



In course of time the orange grower observes the hidden, useless 

 branches, that once were the glory of the tree, overlapped by newer 

 growths, year by year. Then there is an intermingling of the weak and 

 the strong, and the outside of the tree ceases to be wholly green and 

 thrifty. Generation after generation, in subdivisions of the original 

 main branches, will appear, overlapping and overhanging the dead and 

 the dying; but among them thrifty shoots are rare and the terminal 

 foliage is thin, small and yellow; fruiting growths of short stems and 

 green foliage appear within, along the limbs, nearer the trunk, in 

 contrast with the original location of good leaves and fruit on and just 

 within the outer surface of the tree. The more open nature of the tree 

 at this stage permits access of light, and the food supply here in store 

 gives rise to buds that make fruit stems. 



So the tree goes on, growing and fruiting, but presenting, on the 

 whole, an unthrifty look, in great contrast to its original head all of 

 green. 



This new phase of scanty foliage without and greenness within is, 

 perhaps, puzzling to the grower, and he resolves on high fertilization 

 which will defer the time when he must prune the tree ; for in its then 

 open condition, growths, in great number, will fill the interior, and a 



