CULTIVATION OF THE ORANGE TKEE IN SPAIN. 549 



Certain intelligent observers maintain that it does not in any way 

 prejudice the tree to lop off all the lower branches, which there is acer. 

 tainty thai if allowed to grow will rest on the ground as soon as they 

 commence bearing fruit, thus impeding the necessary tillage. With 

 reference to the remainder, it is prudent that they should be respected, 

 and even the whole of them leffc untouched should it be noted that the 

 tree does not suffer in its growth from an excess of branches, as said 

 branches will later on distribute themselves, being obliged to do so 

 from the weight of the fruit on them, and then a fitter pruning can be 

 effected and the trees left in the condition in which they, ought to be, 

 the branches prejudicial either to the tree or its development being easily 

 removed. The want of attention to this is the cause of various pruners 

 finding their trees when least expected with fewer branches than the 

 trunk could nourish, and consequently yielding less fruit than, they ought 

 to do. 



The pruning is another of the most important operations of arbori- 

 culture, and very important in the cultivation of orange trees, for the 

 following reasons, which it has for object, viz : 



(1) To give the tree a regular, elegant, and graceful form, with rela- 

 tion to the spot where planted and the space occupied by it. 



(2) To obtain from the whole of the principal branches a series of 

 smaller secondary ones, bearing floral or fruitful buds. 



(3) To make the fruitage more equal and at the same time propor- 

 tionate to the strength of the tree, care being taken to avoid intermis- 

 sion. 



(4) To augment the bulk of the fruit and contribute towards the 

 same being more savory, on account of its juices being obtained with 

 greater care and more completely. 



Cultivation when in full production. As has been seen, little by little 

 many modifications have been introduced in the cultivation of this tree 

 as it goes on developing. When the tree is in full production the cul- 

 tivation is as follows : If the orchard is small, hormigueros are made one 

 year, and the following one manure is employed j but should it be large, 

 hormigueros are made in one half and the other half is manured. The 

 following year the part where the hormigueros were made is manured, 

 and in the other part where the manuring was effected hormigueros are 

 made, and this system is successively continued alternately. Should 

 the fruit be sold at Christmas, the soil is worked in February and 

 March ; but should the fruit not be sold at said period, the only thing 

 to be done is to wait till it is plucked and then work the soil when pos- 

 sible. As soon as the tree is bare of fruit, the pruner commences his 

 work, the best time for this being the end of February and during the 

 whole of March. All dry branches are cut off, as are also all rickety 

 shoots and the crooked branches which cross one another, and some of 

 those from the center, when there are many close together; in short, 

 all those branches that are calculated to prejudice the tree. The orange 



