118 



STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



photographs taken in two of the largest orchards in the State, 

 at San Gabriel. 



The cut on this page illustrates the method of high pruning 

 followed by some growers who until recently were firm believers 

 in the system. The trees require to be propped to support the 

 fruit which is borne at the ends of the branches. As many as 

 ten to fifteen poles are required on some trees to prevent the 

 breaking of limbs that become heavily laden with fruit, besides 



tying them with ropes 

 to the main branches. 

 The ground underneath 

 always " bakes " and 

 the trees show yellow- 

 ing of the leaves. Now, 

 pause for a moment, 

 study the picture and 

 see what proportion of 

 foliage is cut away, 

 which, if left, would 

 protect the upper limbs 

 from breaking and al- 

 low the fruit to be 

 borne proportionally 

 throughout. It is need- 

 less, perhaps, to remark 

 that the crop borne on 

 such trees is consider- 

 ably less than that 

 borne by trees having 

 a dense foliage and 



High pruned trees— propped trained low. 



The illustration on page 120 is of a low-trained tree, from 

 a photograph taken in an orchard, and a fair specimen of how 

 the entire orchard looks. Here no props are used ; there is 

 little or no dead wood inside, caused by the hot rays of the sun. 

 No limbs are required to be tied, and above all the crop is 

 always twice the size of that borne by high-trimmed orchards. 



In summer the trees must be irrigated, and as the cultivator 

 cannot run close to the trunks the surface of most soils will 

 "bake" by the heat before they can be worked by hand. On 



