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CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



as it comes from the nursery usually starts upon an upright course. If 

 stopped at about three feet it can be brought along to develop strong 

 and well-arranged branches, much as has been described for deciduous 

 fruit trees in Chapter XII. The adjacent engraving, Fig. 1, shows a 

 young tree in planting condition, stopped at three feet and needing 

 only a slight cutting back of the laterals to be ready to begin its orchard 

 life. If young trees are transplanted short distances and at the right 

 time they do not need so much cutting back as is commonly given them. 

 If allowed to grow from the start shown in Fig. 1, pruning only to 



-PH4 



Fig. 1. Orange tree at planting 

 in orchard. Three feet high 



prevent long branches from running out at random, and removing 

 branches which may start strongly from near the base, the tree will 

 assume the branch-form shown in Fig. 2 and at from two to three 

 years after planting in the orchard. At about this age the removal of 

 lower branches begins, as they have served their purpose in shading the 

 trunk and bearing the first fruit. These branches are removed one by 

 one until, when the tree is five years in the orchard, it has lost all 

 branches below the two-foot line except the one branch marked "a" of 

 which the upright-growing part will be retained. The higher branches 



