CALIFORNIA CITRUS CULTURE. 29 



that sandy soils will be more retentive of moisture if well supplied with 

 humus ; and all should remember that no thorough orchardist will wait 

 until his trees show by wilt of foliage that they are thirsty before he 

 turns on the water. 



PRUNING. 



After the shaping up of the yearling orange tree little more pruning 

 is called for, other than to cut out all the dead limbs or to cut back or 

 off the too ambitious suckers or water sprouts; though if the trees are 

 headed low, as they should be, it will be wise to trim up from the ground 

 only enough to permit cultivation of all the surface soil close up to the 

 trees. This low heading protects the trees from the sun. Some of our 

 most excellent orchardists prune, even the orange, more ' thoroughly, 

 cutting out the weakest of all competing branches and letting in the 

 sun, believing that they thus secure larger foliage and more fruit wood. 

 With the lemon, more pruning is usually done. It is found that more 

 and better fruit is secured if the trees are cut back and the centers 

 somewhat thinned. It is now the common practice of our best lemon 

 growers to thin out and cut back the branches every year. These 

 prunings in small orchards may be cut up by the use of a hand pruner, 

 though many orchardists use a cutting box, which runs by power and 

 is drawn between the rows of trees, to cut these prunings into rather 

 short lengths, which are then plowed under. I believe this is a very 

 wise practice. Those with small holdings may combine and secure a 

 power cutter to be used in common. There is one custom among almost 

 all citrus fruit men that I can but believe is wholly wrong. I refer to 

 the fact that the branches are permitted to hug the ground. This 

 precludes cultivation close up to the trees, and if there is a growth of 

 grass or weeds under the trees in early spring and on up to summer, 

 this is likely to be untouched, and there is a heavy loss of water by 

 transpiration from this undergrowth. If the soil is not broken up, it 

 is dead soil, and there is great consequent loss. I am firmly of the 

 opinion that the whole soil close up to the tree should be mellowed 

 deeply at each cultivation of the orchard, even though general practice 

 is to the contrary, so that there may be a splendid, dry, fine earth 

 mulch, of at least four inches, always covering the entire surface of 

 the ground. Some of our ablest orchardists, notably Mr. C. C. Chap- 

 man of the "Old Mission" brand, practice this low pruning, and are 



