CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



the branch-form of the young tree at about six months from plant- 

 ing and the shoots with which the building-down is begun. The 

 first step is to check the drooping habit. Upon this point Mr. Reed 

 says: 



The common notion that the branch of the Navel orange naturally tends 

 down is a mistake which grows out of the fact that in its rapid growth the 

 new part of the stems and large leaves are so loaded with sap that they 



gull the stems from their natural upright position, and, 'unless relieved, 

 old them there till the deposit of woody fiber fixes the branches in the 

 drooping or unnatural position. If the tips of these rapidly growing branches, 

 with their heavy leaves, be clipped at the right time, the branches will spring 

 back to the erect position, where they will remain to send out new branches. 

 It is wonderful how the orange tree can be molded like a thing of wax 

 by pinching and clipping here and there, if done at the right time. 



Fig. 5 shows the result of this clipping of heavy shoots to allow 

 them to assume a more upright growth and the encouragement of 

 new shoots below the two-foot mark. Fig. 6 gives the branch form 

 of a five-year-old tree, with its lower story of bearing wood well 

 developed, and Fig. 7 is the foliage-form of the same tree, about 

 fifteen feet high, with its leaves and fruit reaching to the ground. 

 As to how low the branches should be allowed, Mr. Reed says that 

 until recently he has thought it best to keep the lower branches 

 clipped back so that the fruit would not touch the ground, but he 

 is persuaded that it is better to let them come to the ground even 

 if considerable fruit rests on it. He finds that many of the best 

 orchardists do this, and claim that there are really less culls among 

 the fruit on the ground than on the less-protected branches above. 



Later Pruning of the Orange. After the form of the orange is 

 well established the aim should be to preserve a compact, sym- 

 metrical and convenient form. It is desirable that weak wood 

 should be removed; dead interior branches, which have given up 

 the struggle for the light, should also be removed. It is an ap- 

 palling undertaking to get into the inside of an old orange tree and 

 saw off and drag out the dead wood, but, as already stated, the 

 conviction is growing that this should be done. Of the growing 

 shoots there is a reasonable amount of thinning to be done. The 

 clipping back of ambitious shoots multiplies laterals. There should 

 be a good 1 , cover of leaves, but the crowding of leaves on leaves 

 excludes light and air and weakens the tree by lessening the vigor 

 of leaf action. Dead twigs which appear among good bearing shoots 

 should always be removed. 



The gourmand shoots or suckers should usually be repressed, 

 unless, by clipping, one can be turned into a branch where a branch 

 is needed. The importance of removing sucker growths when in- 

 capable of thus being rendered useful is being recognized as a fixed 

 policy in pruning, although there are dissenters who contend for 

 e desirability of using suckers more freely for the sake of renew- 

 ing the bearing wood of the tree continually by training new 

 anches from suckers. On the other hand, the anti-suckers claim 

 it good trees have been diverted from bearing fruit of good type to 

 that which is in all respects inferior, by allowing supremacy to 



