LUTHER BURBANK 



branches start only eighteen inches or two feet 

 from the ground. 



Where formerly high ladders were required to 

 pluck the fruit, a modern orchardist, for a good 

 many years after his trees are in bearing, can stand 

 on the ground and reach the main bulk of the 

 fruit; and even that which falls is not mutilated 

 and bruised as it used to be. Also the trees are 

 much less apt to be broken or blown over by the 

 wind. 



And in this I am not referring to such "freak" 

 trees as, for example, my little bush-like quinces, 

 scarcely waist high yet almost breaking under 

 the weight of mammoth fruits. I am speaking of 

 the commercial orchard, and have in mind in par- 

 ticular the apple tree, because it is with regard to 

 this tree that the most conspicuous transforma- 

 tion has been effected. Plum trees and peach trees 

 were never very large, but it used to be taken for 

 granted that the apple tree should be of gigantic 

 proportions; so the half dwarf trees on which the 

 best apples of today are grown might seem to the 

 casual observer to belong to a different family of 

 plants from their progenitors. 



GAUGING YOUR CLIMATE 



As to other desirable qualities, much depends 

 upon the location of the orchard and the market 

 that the orchardist has in view. 



[56] 



