Hfcx>anta0es of pruning 327 



Nature has so placed the primary branches that they receive an 

 equal amount of light. Each pair of branches grows in a direction, 

 with regard to the branch next to them, which deviates a few degrees 

 from a right angle, so that if there are twenty pairs of branches no two 

 of them will be found to be in the same vertical plane. This arrange- 

 ment gives each primary branch a sufficiently large space for its de- 

 velopment and sufficient amount of light. But when the vertical 

 growth of the plant is checked by pruning this space becomes reduced 

 to a circle of not more than three feet deep and about six feet in 

 diameter. 



As each branch gives but one crop, there would soon be no room 

 for new branches to grow, if the old ones were not removed, for the 

 secondary branches, after yielding their crop, would produce tertiary 

 branches, these quaternary branches, and so on, successively, until the 

 tree would be converted into a thicket of branches and unproductive 

 foliage. The production of branches which give fruit takes place only 

 when there is room for them to grow and light to make them grow. 



In pruning there are two distinct operations, tapping and pruning, 

 properly so called. The former consists in removing from the plant 

 the upper part of its main stem or leader; and the second in cutting off 

 some of its branches. 



The upper shoots being cut off, the power of the sap before long 

 causes two or three supplementary shoots to grow beneath the highest 

 branches, and renews them as often as they are removed. These 

 shoots being prevented from growing, as care must be taken to cut 

 them off whenever they appear, the sap flows to the primary branches 

 and makes them grow about three feet from the trunk. When the sap 

 ceases to nourish the primary branches, it goes to nourish the second- 

 ary branches, and in the management of these consists the art of 

 pruning and the success of the plantation. 



The only permanent parts of the tree are the trunk and the primary 

 branches. The trunk should grow straight and thick, and the primary 

 branches should be strong and straight, and should grow at right 

 angles with the trunk. If a primary branch should die or grow sickly 

 it cannot be replaced. 



c. Advantages of Pruning. The advantages of pruning, to sum up, 

 are the following: 



1. It gives the tree an artificial form which makes it suffer less in 

 situations in which it is exposed to the winds. 



2. It makes the gathering of the crop easier and cheaper. 



3. It increases the yield of the tree. 



4. It regularizes the crop. 



The branches which are exposed to the sun and air are those which 

 bear the best fruit. Consequently, the more closely the tree is pruned, 



