SETTING THE GROVE. 259 



should be reduced proportionately and all trees should 

 be shipped cut back and defoliated. If the trees have been 

 grown to a single shoot, without branches, they should 

 be cut off with a sloping cut just above a node, about 

 two or two and a half feet from the ground. If well-de- 

 veloped branches are found at this height or perhaps a 

 little higher, trim them in to spurs with two or three 

 buds. Should the trees not start promptly they should 

 be more severely cut back. Figures 63 and 65 illustrate 

 the methods of pruning the top and reducing the leaf 

 area of citrus trees. 



The system of lifting the citrus trees with a ball of 

 earth still remaining about them and then encasing this 

 in a sack is an excellent one. The trees may be transported 

 long distances and planted out without even wilting the 

 foliage, if the work is carefully done. To lift the trees a 

 trench is dug along one side of the nursery row, about 

 eighteen inches deep and six or eight inches away from 

 the trees. In digging this trench, the layer of lateral 

 roots are cut off, and at the bottom the tap-root is sev- 

 ered. The top soil is then removed so as to barely ex- 

 pose the crown roots and a sharp spade is thrust into the 

 soil on the three uncut sides to sever the remaining lat- 

 erals. When all the roots have been cut the tree is care- 

 fully lifted from its place. The angles are rounded off 

 and the tree is set on a piece of burlap sufficiently large 

 to completely cover the ball. The burlap is carefully 

 drawn around and tied about the earth. The size of the 

 ball should correspond with the size of the tree. Smaller 

 trees have about forty pounds of earth, larger ones about 

 sixty. This method of digging trees cannot be pursued on 

 loose, sandy soils, but only on those which have sufficient 

 clay to make the ball adhere well about the roots. 



