10 



THE KADOTA FIG 



This same tree, months after pruning. One may readily see the advantages 

 obtained by correct pruning, as contrasted with my older trees. 



The old obsolete pruning of fig trees is merely a follow-up of pruning sys- 

 tems employed in New England and other sections, where a fruiting tree was 

 not a tree unless it was pruned up high enough to drive a horse and tall 

 harness-hames under the lowest branches and not knock the apples off. 



A fig orchard should not be an orchard at all in the acceptance of the 

 term. It should be a "Fig Garden" and the trees should be "bushes," as they 

 are on the Island of Capri. 



This past summer several of my 6J/2 year old figs measured 1 00 feet cir- 

 cumference of the branches. The bearing surface was immense. Others were 

 75 to 90 feet. 



Closer planting, severe pruning and smaller bushes, and more tonnage per 

 acre, will be the practices in the near future of all varieties of figs. 



The pruning of a Kadota orchard is the most essential as well as most 

 delicate task we have. The limb of a Kadota tree produces fruit for 18 

 months, and thereafter is a loafer in the tree, except at the extreme tips, or 

 becomes the medium for the production of other limbs that will bear fruit. 



Consequently I practice the removal or shortening of all limbs past the 

 producing age. Cut a limb 1 8 inches from its junction with its parent and it 

 in turn becomes a parent for 3 or 5 newer limbs, all new wood and conse- 

 quently producers of fruit the season following pruning. They get to work 

 right now. They don't wait a year and then get busy. 



