388 CITRUS FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



the treatment of the hollow top, and the training of the 

 main branches. 



The hollow, cone-shaped opening in the top of the 

 tree will soon be filled with shoots springing from buds 

 on the main limbs, these buds being now exposed to the 

 sun and excited into growth. Some of these shoots will 

 stop growing when from six to twelve inches long, and 

 will harden up and form fruit spurs. Others of these 

 shoots will continue to grow at their terminal bud, retain- 

 ing the color and appearance of tender sucker growth. 

 When all have grown long enough to show their charac- 

 ter, cut out the suckers and leave the fruit-spurs. As a 

 result, the saucer-like top of the tree will in time be 

 clothed with short spurs, shading the main limbs, and 

 bearing fruit of finest quality. The top, before a dense 

 thicket, is now made fruitful, without in any way inter- 

 fering with the remaining (most fruitful) branches. 

 With each growth the suckers will for some years persist 

 in coming, but are easy to take out as soon as they show 

 their identity. 



The treatment of the lower branches which remain 

 is the same as if the top had not been removed. If the tree 

 has been well trained from the start its skeleton will con- 

 sist of three or four strong main branches leaving the 

 trunk near the ground, and running out more or less hori- 

 zontally; and one or two more sets or decks of the same 

 number of branches, leaving the trunk above these an<] 

 extending out at an angle of from thirty to forty-five de- 

 grees. These limbs will have been pruned back at inter- 

 vals, and, forming fouks at each pruning, will be found 

 to support an increasing number of branches as the out 

 side of the tree is approached. 



