CULTIVATION OF THE ORCHARD AND GARDEN. 



trouble by picking or rubbing as they may be noticed during the 

 summer. 



How to Trim Fruit Trees Limbs of several inches in size 

 cannot be removed without detriment to the tree. This weakening of 

 the tree may be avoided by proper care from the outset. The limbs 

 are the development of buds, and if these had been picked off when 

 they first appeared, the necessity of removing a developed limb would 

 not have occurred. But if they are not picked off that is no reason 

 why the limb should be allowed to complete its growth. When the 

 first season shall have passed the slightly developed limb can be cut 

 easily with the knife. There is no good judgment involved in al- 

 lowing these undesired limbs to mature, and it is easy to avoid it by 

 paying the simple attention which we have suggested . and the tree 

 instead of developing something that must ultimately be taken from 

 it, to its serious injury, will conserve all its forces in perfecting the 

 form and character sought. The fruit grower can do much in the 

 way of creating a particular form which the tree shall have when it 

 has arrived at its maturity. There is no difficulty in so directing 

 the growth that the branches shall spring out very near the ground, 

 or that the top shall be broad or narrow, or be of any particular 

 shape. Trees do not grow in height in the same measure that their 

 trunks increase in the distance around them. This principle in the 

 growth of trees is not always thoroughly understood, and in order to 

 have the brandies near the ground, many fruit growers allow the 

 buds to sprout, thinking that in the end they will be the lower 

 branches of the tree. But if the course of the development of trees 

 is observed it will be noted that the trunk has developed in size, 

 while the tree has not increased in height, and these branches which 

 have been permitted to grow must have been noticed as being al- 

 most as near the ground as when the young tree was transplanted. 

 In what manner the tree shall be desired to branch out, whether 

 close to the ground or high above it, must depend upon the part of 

 country in which the orchard is to grow. In climates where there is 

 a continuance of high winds, and where the winters are severe, trees 

 which are of low height and whose branches are close to the ground, 

 will be more desirable than" those of different appearance. If the 

 fruit grower shall determine to devote the soil of his orchard to pur- 

 poses other than the mere perfection of his fruit trees, and in the 

 process of his cultivating shall find it necessary to plow or mow, of 

 course it will be much more convenient for him to have the lowest 

 branches of the trees at some considerable height from the ground. 

 But if the orchard is to be an orchard merely, then trees which are 

 easy of approach, and to be picked, will be most convenient, and 

 these are they which grow their fruit near the ground. Limbs 

 which show a tendency to grow crookedly, or to interrupt the devel- 

 opment or the yield of other branches, should be pruned off. Sun- 

 light is an indispensable element in bringing fruit to perfection ; there- 

 fore the uppermost branches of fruit trees should not be so close togeth- 



