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CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



to a certain definite height is wrong. Trees shorn across at a certain 

 line become thick as a brush with top shoots which require extensive 

 thinning, or the bearing wood will soon be all at that level through 

 failure of the densely shaded bearing wood below. Cut to the nearest 

 lateral below the line you wish to approximate, and shorten the lateral, 

 if desirable, and the result will be fewer and stronger shoots than from 

 a stub-cut. 



In the treatment of bearing trees the main effort should generally be 

 toward thinning or reducing the number of bearing shoots. This is 

 related to the important work of thinning the fruit to reduce the burden 

 of the tree, and will be mentioned again in that connection. The work 





Second winter pruning in orchard. 



has, however, a bearing beyond the size of the individual fruit speci- 

 mens. It involves the whole future of the tree as a profitable affair. An 

 unthinned tree becomes a thicket of small, weak, and dying laterals and 

 spurs. An attempt to cure this afterwards by sawing out many large 

 branches is only partially successful, though perhaps the best thing that 

 can be done after such condition has been allowed to exist. The only 

 way to keep the interior of the tree full enough of strong, bearing wood 

 is to resolutely and regularly thin out surplus shoots as the tree ad- 

 vances in age and size. This work is as important with trees which 

 are not regularly cut back, as with those which are thus treated. It is 

 one of the most vital as well as the most generally neglected item in 

 orchard practice. 



