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THE MONTHLY BUI^LETIN. 



PRUNING AND TRAINING A YOUNG LEMON ORCHARD . 



By W. H. Fleet, Sespe, California. 



It is not my intention in presenting this subject, "Pruning and Train- 

 ing a Young Lemon Orchard, ' ' to ridicule or to condemn other methods, 

 but rather to give you some of the results of my long experience in 

 growing lemon trees, and to tell you of a method of pruning which the 

 Rancho Sespe has followed for six years, and up to the present time 

 has found no reason for changing. I do not know of anything that con- 

 cerns the lemon grower more today than the pruning and training of 

 his lemon trees. 



Fig. 80. — Young lemon tree ready for the 

 first pruning. (Original.) 



Almost twenty-eight years ago when I began my citrus experience in 

 the east end of Ventura County, I soon realized there was no uniform 

 method of pruning or training young lemon trees. Men were going 

 through the country calling themselves expert pruners. They did not 

 own an orchard and had never paid much attention to the fruiting 

 qualifications of the tree, as they never pruned an orchard more than 

 once a year. These men were employed to do the general spring prun- 



♦Adilress before the Special Citrus Convention, San Bernardino, Cal. 

 1916. 



February, 



