390 CITRUS FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



that we are after. Were it not for the cutting back 

 these buds would become dormant and lost to use; the 

 leader on which they are situated would grow five or six 

 feet perhaps, before nature would make another branch 

 ing, and give more buds a chance to go to housekeeping. 



How to handle the shoots which get the sap and be- 

 come leaders is an important question. It is right here 

 that judicious thinning should be done, to keep the tree 

 from becoming too dense. All the shoots should be left 

 until long enough to show which will be fruit-spurs and 

 which leaders. All but one of the leaders, the one which 

 points in the desired direction, should be cut off clean 

 This leader will thus become the foundation of all future 

 growth on this branch. At the next pruning it would be 

 well to leave two leaders, laying the foundation for a new 

 branch. By alternating in this way we can increase the 

 number of ramifications of the tree, without getting it 

 too dense the trouble with most lemon trees. 



These new leaders, when grown big enough, should in 

 turn be cut back, and treated in the same manner. Be- 

 yond this, and keeping water-sprouts out of the center, 

 little need be done to the tree. Nature will take care oi 

 the rest. 



It may seem impracticable to apply one set of rules 

 to all varieties of the lemon tree, but in the experience 

 of the writer, all have responded to this method of treat 

 ment. The Lisbon, being first and last a lusty grower, 

 is bound, whatever the style of pruning, to make a rank 

 mass of new wood. Let it grow, and cut off what is not 

 wanted; let it grow again, and cut it back again. It can 

 be made to bear plenty of fruit within easy reach, if left 

 to itself it will produce little but stovewood. 



