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CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



suggest that pruning bearing trees, to be intelligently pursued, must 

 be accompanied with the fullest possible knowledge of the bearing 

 habit of the fruit or variety thereof. 



Cutting back or "shortening in" should be done in a way which 

 will reduce the burst of new shoots near the cut. This is measurably 

 secured by always cutting the branch at a strong lateral, because 

 the sap flow into this lateral prevents undue pressure and forcing 

 of latent buds in the vicinity of the cut. For this reason the cutting 

 back of all branches 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 bear- 

 ing 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 has, however, a bearing beyond the size of the individual 

 fruit specimens. It involves the whole future of the tree as a profit- 

 able affair. An unthinned tree becomes a thicket of small, weak, and 



Yearling peach. Cut back at planting. First summer's growth in the 



orchard. 



of 



