163 



Young plants should be encouraged to make as much wood as 

 possible for the first three or four years, and any fruit showing 

 after blossoming is rubbed off. 



The orange and other citrus trees carry their fruit on one year 

 old wood only, and at the extremity of their branches and twigs ; 

 after the crop is off, young dormant buds at the back of the pre- 

 vious season's fruit shoot out, overgrow last season's fruit stalk, 

 and blossom in due course. It will thus be seen that the mode of 

 shortenmg-in described for the peach is not applicable for trees of 

 the citrus tribe, which would thereby be made barren for the next 

 season. It is also necessary, in order to obtain heavy crops, to 

 maintain the tree in a thrifty state of growth. 



Orange tree before pruning-. 



Some varieties of citrus trees, and more especially the Thorny 

 mandarin, grow a very thick and compact head, which requires 

 some amount of thinning out and cutting back, or else they are 

 given to overbear one season and vegetate the next, for the purpose 

 of recuperating. The twigs, besides, when left untouched, become 

 so numerous and so puny that a large proportion of undersized and 

 inferior fruit result in seasons of bearing of the trees, whereas no 

 fruit at all is produced during the off year. 



It is at times desirable to renovate old citrus trees which 

 through neglect or disease have ceased to become profitable. A 



