CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



habit of the tree. Thinning out of bearing shoots and spurs, when 

 either are clearly seen to be in excess, should be the constant study 

 of the primer. 



Regular Bearing. This point is largely involved in the preceding 

 and affords an additional incentive. Regulating the amount of fruit 

 borne in one year may involve the profit of two years, because a 

 tree may not be able to produce an excessive amount of fruit and 

 perfect good fruit buds for the following year. It may generally 

 make buds which will bloom, but not always that. It it does make 

 the bloom, it is no guaranty that the bloom will be strong and 

 effective for bearing. Consequently, pruning for reasonable amount 

 of bearing should always be borne in view and should be practiced 

 at the close of the year of non-bearing with particular diligence, if 

 the alternate year bearing habit is to be broken up. 



The foregoing are among the practical purposes to be served in 

 pruning. There are others, but these will suffice to emphasize a 

 single point, and that is, that pruning can not be compressed into a 

 single formula, nor can one learn it by a recipe. There are various 

 ends to attain ; they may be attained in different ways, although it 

 is not strange that substantial agreement in methods does largely 

 prevail. It is better to try to understand the purposes than to mem- 

 orize the formulae. Get the tree and its interest clearly in the mind ; 

 have an ideal toward which to work ; be more interested in why a 

 neighbor prunes in a certain than how he does it. Learn constantly 

 by all available means, and at the same time study the visible forms 

 and aim to understand their fullest significance. 



FORM OF TREE BEST SUITED TO CALIFORNIA 

 CONDITIONS 



The form of deciduous fruit tree which prevails with singular 

 uniformity all over the State is the "vase," or "goblet," or "wine- 

 glass" form, all these terms signifying a similar shape. There are 

 different ways in which this form is secured and maintained in 

 different parts of the State, and with different fruits, which will be 

 especially noted in the chapters devoted to these fruits. 



The mainspring of success in California is to grow low trees. 

 Low is a term admitting of degrees, it is true, and may imply a 

 trunk six inches up to one or two feet, in the clear. In addition to 

 the general advantages of low-trained trees which have been 

 described, there are special reasons for this form in California. Hun- 

 dreds of thousands of trees have been destroyed by the exposure 

 of a long, bare trunk to the rays of the afternoon sun. The sun- 

 burned sides have given the conditions desired by borers, and 

 destruction has quickly followed. Sometimes young trees have not 

 survived their first season in the orchard, because of burned bark; or 



