PRUNING FOR PROFIT 



ARE YOU RAISING FRUIT OR WOOD? 

 BY WILL C. BARNES 



THE overland train slipped into an obscure siding waived all other requirements and turned the place over 

 on the edge of a little town in the fruit belt of to him with a thankful heart. 



eastern Kansas. On the platform of the observa- 

 tion car, several travelers watched a man at work in a 

 nearby orchard pruning apple trees ; "dehorning 'em" 

 a western cattle man called it. 



Naturally the conversation drifted into the subject 

 of pruning. One of the party, a Boston merchant, re- 

 marked that, until recently he had the idea that pruning 

 was a "carpenters job" pure and simple. "I know bet- 

 ter now," he explained, "thanks to some rather practical 

 lessons re- 

 ceived while 

 on this last trip 

 to the Pacific 

 coast." Some 

 one pressed 

 him for par- 

 ticulars. H e 

 lighted a fresh 

 cigar and set- 

 tled back in his 

 chair. 



"For fifteen 

 years," he be- 

 gan, "I have 

 been the proud 

 possessor of a 

 twenty acre 

 orange grove 

 i n southern 

 C a 1 i f o r nia. 

 During all 

 these years I 

 have seen it 

 only twice, but 

 have been giv- 

 ing it 'absent 

 treatment' 

 through vari- 

 o u s alleged 

 'orange grove 

 experts,' the 

 last being a 

 man whose main qualifications for the job of caring for 

 it, were his absolute integrity, and ability to distinguish 

 between his own and his employers money, and an eco- 

 nomical nature that Harry Lauder himself would envy. 

 During the first six or seven years of ownership, I went 

 through the whole gamut of experience in 'hiring and 

 firing* a genial lot of pirates and spendthrifts, whose 

 one ambition seem to be to draw their pay and give in 

 return the least possible amount of labor. Thus when 

 I 'met up' with this paragon of economy and honesty I 



798 



EUREKA LEMON TREE BEFORE PROFESSIONAL PRUNING 

 One of the lemon trees told of in this story so shapely and attractive to the eye! 



"I soon found that his economical ideas permeated 

 his whole system, for his letters and reports were few 

 and short and if brevity is the soul of wit he is at once 

 the wittiest man ever. 



"After several years of his management I decided to 

 visit the place and see for myself what was happening. 

 Across the road from my place was a grove whose 

 owner was reputed to be making big money out of his 

 trees. To him I went for advice. 



" 'Your trees 

 look so ragged 

 and uneven in 

 their outlines' 

 I ventured, 

 pointing to my 

 own which, ac- 

 cording to my 

 innocent eyes 

 were better 

 looking being 

 as shapely and 

 even as a lot 

 o f Christmas 

 trees. 



'"Yours do 

 look better 

 from an artis- 

 tic standpoint, 

 but let me 

 show you why 

 "that isn't the 

 ideal shape for 

 an orange tree.' 

 We walked 

 over to one of 

 his trees. It 

 was almost 

 ragged in ap- 

 pearance and 

 instead of the 

 dense wall of 

 green which 

 formed a fairly impenetrable mass on the outside of my 

 trees, his were open to the heart, and one could see deep 

 into them at any point. There wasn't a dead limb on 

 one of them, while they bore plenty of young vigorous 

 limbs all new growth. The sunlight reached every part, 

 inside and out, and each tree was loaded with fruit. 



"Then we walked over to my side of the road. The 

 tall shapely trees looked wonderfully attractive to me. 

 We got down on our knees and crawled under the low 

 sweeping boughs into the tent like center. Instead of 



