PRUNING OF TREES AND ORNAMENTALS. 137 



apricot-trees will bear this cutting back as well as the 

 apple, if a few limbs are taken out each year until a new 

 top is formed, as is done in California. 



150. Pruning the Orange. This semi-tropical fruit is 

 included mainly to sustain the principle now so generally 

 favored of growing thick tops in hot, relatively dry 

 climates. Professor Wickson, of California, says: "The 

 best form of tree is a low-headed compact growth. When 

 young the stem must be protected by wrapping with paper 

 or something of the kind until the leaves do that service. 

 The lower branches will bear the first fruit, and as the tree 

 attains age they will stop growing and can be removed. 

 Thus the head of the trees is raised gradually and space is 

 given for the drooping of the higher branches." 



Visitors to California, Florida, and Cuba will be sur- 

 prised by the thick foliage, under shelter of which perfect 

 oranges develop, just as perfect fruits of all the orchard 

 varieties in the arid States and prairie States east of the 

 Rocky Mountains develop under the shelter of the outer 

 thick foliage of headed-back trees. 



151. Pruning the Quince. The blossoms and fruit of the 

 quince appear on new shoots of the same season's growth like 

 the hickory, butternut, walnut, and some roses. That is, 

 when growth commences in the spring no flowers appear; 

 but after the terminal shoots have grown several inches the 

 flowers appear at the top of the season's growth. Hence 

 in pruning the quince, any attempt at cutting back will 

 take away all the fruit-bearing wood of that season. Thus 

 the pruning of this class of trees and shrubs, known as 

 " co-terminal," is confined to removing dead wood and the 

 interior growth no longer bearing perfect leaves or fruit. 



152. Pruning and Shaping Shrubs. All our ornamental 

 shrubs of the lawn and park may be divided into three 

 general classes as to habits of flowering and pruning : 



