THE LEMON IN CALIFORNIA — PRUNING. 



193 



"Altering old trees." As most of the lemon trees in California 

 are three years old or over, this paper will be confined to a 

 discussion of the method of altering old trees to conform to the 

 "open-center" style. 



It is assumed that the trees to be altered are branched fairly 

 near the ground. If they have been up high no system of 

 pruning will bring the fruit within reach from the ground, but 

 to cut out the tops will save sap and make the lower limbs, 

 such as they are, more fruitful. 



Lemon tree pruned by the open-center method. 



Assuming, then, that the grower has trained his trees near 

 the ground, and has not caused the branches to grow up for 

 elephants to walk under, the method of procedure is as follows: 

 Draw an imaginary line around the outside of the tree, as high 

 up as a man can reach standing on a picking-box. All the 

 limbs that terminate above thi§ line should be cut out. Cut 

 them ofl-at their juncture with the limbs that terminate below 

 the imaginary line. The sketch on page 192 shows roughly 

 13c ' 



