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CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



branches in the top get a good start. Then pinch everything clean 

 but the leader, in every main branch in the tree. The leader takes 

 its own way all through the growing season, to prevent the effects 

 of over-pinching or checking the growth. If only the side shoots are 

 kept back, the leader or head of the branches receives the current or 

 flow of sap and maintains and carries on life and vitality in the 

 tree. One object in pinching or spur pruning is to keep back sur- 

 plus wood and create fruit spurs, throwing all the little twigs and 

 branches into fruit, thereby utilizing all the wood the tree can pro- 

 duce, not allowing it to grow at the tree's expense, and then have to 

 cut it off. And another object in side-shoot pruning is to make the 

 tree produce fine large cherries, all closely nestling around the big 

 wood, and no long, slim branches hanging down like weeping willow. 

 This method is commended to those who like a tree with a cen- 

 tral leader and are willing to give their orchards such constant 

 attention. Unless pinching and consequent multiplication of shoots 

 and foliage is fathfully followed such a tree is apt to become tall 

 and rangy and to expose the bark all the way up to sunburn and 

 borers. 



THE USUAL METHOD OF PRUNING THE CHERRY 



As has been said, all cherry growers agree on low heading and 

 on the advantage of pinching the lowest shoots as soon as they make 

 a bunch of leaves. In forming the head, and in after treatment, the 

 usual method is quite different from that we have described. It fol- 

 lows the vase or goblet form, which has been discussed at length in 

 the chapter on pruning. Of the application of this method to the 

 cherry, W. W. Smith, in an address before the State Horticultural 

 Society, said : 



The cherry may be pruned the same as any other deciduous fruit tree 

 until it is about five years old; after that the less pruning the better, except 

 when necessary to cut out a dead or crossing branch. Pruning the cherry 

 is more or less likely to produce gum (and this, decay) and should be avoid- 

 ed as much as possible. Cherry trees, however, should be trained with low 

 heads not to exceed eighteen inches from the ground to the first branches; 

 fifteen inches is better. From three to five branches are enough to form the 

 head of the tree; all others should be removed early. Three are better than 

 five; two make a forked tree, which is likely to split in after years. 



At the end of the first season we have a neat little tree with three to five 

 branches. During the following winter these branches should be cut back 

 to six to eight inches. The next season these should be allowed to produce 

 two branches each (no more); then, at the end of the second season from 

 planting out, we have a tree with from six to ten branches. The following 

 winter the new growth should be cut back again to from twelve to eighteen 

 inches according to the amount of growth the tree makes the less the 

 growth the more you cut. The same process should be repeated the follow- 

 ing winter, treating each branch as an individual tree, until the tree is about 

 five years old; it takes at least five years to get the head of a cherry well 

 established. After this, as some varieties will persist in throwing out branches 

 near the ground, they should be removed during the summer. At this age 

 the tree, if well grown, will have top enough to shade its body from the sun, 

 and there is no further need of branches on the main trunk. 



If necessary to remove large branches it should be done in midsummer, 

 as that is the only season when the gum is not more or less exuded. We 



