550 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



trees must have sufficient space between each to allow of good venti- 

 lation, and they must be properly protected to enable them to resist 

 the abrupt changes of temperature and at the same time give the full 

 quantity of fruit they ought to yield. An excess of wood is iirejutlicial 

 to the luxuriance of the trees, as likewise to their production, for which 

 reason cultivators endeavor by pruning to widen the scroun of the 

 tree, and check its growth in height. In September, before the trees 

 begin to bud, they should all be well examined to remove alltheyoung 

 twigs that may have formed, only leaving such buds as are well placed 

 for forming branches in the empty spaces there may be. This custom 

 is very much neglected, for which reason trees are very frequently seen 

 with twigs which have rendered useless the principal branches, thus 

 disarranging the good order these should have in their proper distribu- 

 tion. One thing the pruner of orange trees must bear in mind is the 

 following, viz, that the branches of these trees bear a heavy fruit, which 

 makes them incline to either side; but there are some who do not take 

 this into account and prune some of the branches that ought not to be 

 touched, only fixing their attention on the place they occupied at the 

 time of pruning, which was different to that where they previously 

 were. Those who are not partisans of low trees, like the cultivators 

 here, allow the orange trees a greater development and do not punish 

 them so much in the pruning. 



As soon as the pruning is finished the working of the soil is com- 

 menced. This is watered and dug up, and hormigueros made where they 

 correspond, which last work should be carefully attended to, otherwise 

 the farmer will spend both time and money uselessly. The hormigueros 

 give very good results in strong and damp soils, but they are of littlo 

 use in those that are sandy and dry A sufficient quantity of combus- 

 tible should be employed and the earth so burned as to be neither "too 

 much nor too little so, but at the same time be blackish. This opera- 

 tion must be effected slowly and with great care. In the orchards where 

 guano is employed, which is thrown round about the trunk, the hormi- 

 gueros are made in the parts where said manure has not been used, so 

 that the same may benefit thereby. 



In the orchards manured with stable dung, which manure cultivators 

 are accustomed to throw down in every row between each orange tree, 

 the hormigueros are made in the clear spots that have not been manured. 

 The part of the orangery that is manured is worked as follows : Some 

 fanners irrigate the ground and when the proper season arrives throw 

 down the manure, digging up the soil with a spade to the depth of 25 

 to 30 millimeters in the clear spots, and only 2 or 3 inches deep in the 

 vicinity of the trees. As this is being done, men go behind and level 

 the surface with a species of narrow hoe, in order that the earth may 

 be more united and better preserve its seasoning. Other cultivators 

 commence by making a string of ridges from one to the other side of 

 each row of orange trees at the distance of the extremity of the branches, 



