CHAPTER XII; 
PRUNING ORCHARD TREES AND THINNING FRUIT. 
It is not intended to enter into a discussion of the general 
theories of pruning. The reader desiring to pursue them is re- 
ferred to the abundant literature on the subject in Eastern and 
European treatises. The effort to approve or condemn these 
theories by considering them in the light of California experience 
and observation might lead to interesting conclusions, but it has 
no place in a work aiming merely at an exposition of what 
appears to be the most satisfactory practise in California fruit 
growing. It will be found that this practise varies somewhat in 
the different regions of Calitornia, sometimes in degree, some- 
times in kind, because of different local conditions, and it might 
be found that nearly all reasonable theories of pruning could be 
verified in California experience. 
Pruning in California is at present almost exclusively a 
shaping process. Our fruit trees are naturally so prone to bear 
fruit that pruning to produce fruitfulness is seldom thought of, 
and still more rarely practised, while pruning to reduce bearing 
wood, and thus decrease the burden of the tree, is quite widely 
done, to take the place, in part, of thinning out the fruit. Prun- 
ing to restore vigor to the tree, as in cutting back to make a new 
head, is also rather a rare proceeding, probably because our 
trees are generally too young to require it. We prune, then, 
for shape and for the many practical advantages which inhkere 
in the form now prevailing in California orchards. Some of 
these advantages are peculiar to our climate; others we share 
with those who advocate a similar form elsewhere. 
Our best orchards of the same fruits in adjacent localities 
are almost identical in form and general appearance of the trees, 
and those more distant differ chiefly in the extent to which the 
same principles are applied. And this is not because the trees 
are allowed to follow their natural inclination, which should 
secure resemblance, but because their natural bent is resolutely 
conquered by agreement of growers that they know what is 
good for the tree; and this substantial unanimity is the result of 
the experience of the last forty-five years. People possessed of 
the art temperament sometimes complain of the depressing uni- 
formity and artificiality of orchard-tree shapes in California. 
(313) 
