96 LUTHER BURBANK 



course, his trees were never as good as though 

 they had been given the right start; but their 

 new condition was an improvement on the 

 old one. 



This misguided orchardist was simply acting 

 on the mistaken idea that was everywhere cur- 

 rent until quite recently the idea that it is 

 necessary to run a tree into the sky so that other 

 crops can be raised under it, and that teams 

 can be driven close to the trees in cultivating. 

 Nowadays the orchardist adapts the implements 

 of cultivation to the tree, instead of adapting the 

 tree to the implements. 



Or, what is better, he adapts the trees to the 

 land and makes the orchard pay better and with 

 less labor, without attempting to raise any other 

 crops in the orchard. 



It has been discovered that skyscrapers in 

 the orchard do not pay. A tree should be 

 of such form that the fruit may be picked 

 conveniently. It should not be necessary to use 

 stepladders to gather the fruit from the lower 

 branches. 



In the case of the prune, in particular, a low- 

 branching tree is especially to be desired, that 

 the prunes may not get bruised in falling, for 

 even as tough a fruit as a prune may be injured 

 in falling from a tall tree. 



