84 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



that the root system is starved, because the coBStructive process of 

 food-making has not been active enough, for the reason that the leaves 

 are not normally green, and this one factor, visible to the eye, is plainlj^ 

 the one the grower needs to make potent again, as it is in young trees, 

 without his aid. He can not restore the vitality of the little colorless 

 leaves. He must remove those parts of the branches that carry them 

 and lay open to the light the parts of the limbs that still abound in 

 vital force. Pruning is one method, one part of the plan to be pursued ; 

 the other is a new supply of plant food readily available to the root 

 system. 



When recovery of vitality is not satisfying, following the cutting of 

 ends of limbs, on which the leaves are small and yellowish, and further 

 extensions of growth may not be expected, when, in fact, growth is at a 

 standstill, there are two ways of recovery, one long practiced in all 

 trees in such condition, that is, to lop off all the limbs, leaving only 

 stubs to project from the trunk. 



For the reason named before, when Jack Frost defoliated the 

 branches and new growth followed on the larger parts of the limbs thus 

 exposed to light, so, on the stubs of the tree branches, too weak else- 

 where to make new growth, rich foliage will appear, reinvigorating 

 the naked tree with its food-making powers. 



There follows a wait until the third year for the return of good 

 fruiting conditions. 



There is a still better way to bring about renewed vitality in deca- 

 dent trees with little loss of time to recover their ability to bear good 

 fruit. Like the way of stubbing the branches this method postpones 

 the day of uselessness of trees in a decline of vital powers. 



Some years ago the writer discovered a number of his trees that had 

 resisted all ordinary efforts of restoration, and he conceived the plan of 

 cutting out from the top of such trees several large branches at their 

 junction with the trunk or other branches. This left an open space in 

 the tree tops which may be likened to an inverted cone or a deep 

 basin. The observant orange grower will note that in old trees the 

 topmost limbs lose vital force sooner than limbs issuing from the trunk 

 nearer the ground; thus, the loss to the tree of such limbs is of less 

 moment than elsewhere. 



The same results in growth rencAval took place on the exposed parts 

 of the trunk and limbs as in the instances of frost defoliation and 

 cutting back the limbs to bare stubs, and for the same reasons, exposure 

 to light and air, and food supply ready for the use of new buds that 

 will spring forth from any part of the bark so exposed. 



Further, new growth issues not alone from the new bark, but also 

 from the under sides of the branches of the limbs all around the tree, 

 which become fruit bearers. 



Should the pruner be timid in cutting out large limbs, cutting too few 

 and allowing some to overhang, thus narrowing the top opening, some 

 long shoots will develop and the opening will close, bj^ degrees, and the 

 broad-leaved, fruiting kind of growth will no longer fruit, being 

 deprived of the stimulus of light and of free air supply. This cutting 

 out too few of the top branches will defeat the object intended. As the 

 tree is renewed within — and the largest tree may be thus prepared for 

 renewal in this wav bv the labor of less than ten minutes — shortening 



