ORANGES, LEMONS, AND LIMES TRAINING AND PRUNING. 



53 



the head may be pinched when they have grown 6 inches, and if this is early in summer, 

 they will push two or more growths each, ripen the wood well, and perhaps give a 

 sprinkling of fruit the following year (Fig. 1 4, N). If the three shoots do not appear 

 likely to much exceed 6 inches in length, let them remain and shorten them to 6 inches 

 each before the buds swell the following spring. Further shortening will not be needed, 

 as the heads will become quite close enough by the natural forking of the shoots each 

 year. Some varieties are drooping in habit, others semi-erect, and others form grand 

 conical trees. A semi-erect variety treated as a standard is shown in Fig. 14, 0, and 



Fig. 14. FOBMING CONICAL AND STANDAED OEANQE TEEES. 



References: L, orange tree one year from the bud : o, point of pruning to form a conical or pyramidal tree. M, 

 conical tree in second year : p, point of shortening ; dotted lines indicate growths the result of pruning the leader. 

 N, standard in third year after heading. O, standard tree of semi-erect habit. P, conical-shaped tree in full bearing. 



a low-headed conical tree in Fig. 14, P, both being shown on a much reduced scale to 

 the three preceding figures, and in full bearing. 



Trees for trellises must be headed at the requisite height to insure the proper fur- 

 nishing of the space with branches, these being trained about 1 foot apart and the 

 bearing wood proceeding from them at similar distances. Fan -shaped trees are the best 

 for walls and trellises, as the training allows of the cutting out of worn-out branches 

 and supplanting them by free growing and fruitful wood. 



Pruning. The natural shape of orange trees is such as to prevent the necessity of 



