California Vase Form. 117 
described, there are special reasons for this form in California. 
Hundreds of thousands of trees have been destroyed by the ex- 
posure of a long, bare trunk to the rays of the afternoon sun. 
The sunburned sides have given the conditions desired by borers, 
and destruction has quickly followed. Sometimes young trees 
have not survived their first season in the orchard, because of 
burned bark; or this, with the added injury by the borers. It 
is also found by California experience that growth is more vig- 
orous in the branches when they emerge near the ground. Even 
where actual burning may not occur the travel of the sap through 
the longer distance of trunk is undesirable. It is believed, also, 
that benefit results from shading of the ground at the base of the 
trees, by reducing evaporation, and by maintaining a tempera- 
ture of soil better suited to vigorous root-growth. 
But whatever may be the reasons, the fact is indisputable, 
the higher the prevailing summer temperature, and the greater 
the aridity, the lower should the trees be headed. Trees which 
will do well in the central and upper coast region and adjacent 
to the bay of San Francisco, with twenty-four to thirty-six inches 
of clear trunk would dwindle and probably perish in the heated 
valleys in all parts of the State. In such situations, both north 
and south, the best practise is to head the tree fifteen, twelve, 
and some even hold as low as six inches from the ground. There 
will always be some difference in opinion as to detail, but the 
necessity of making the trunk short enough to be effectually 
shaded by the foliage is admitted by all growers. 
‘Characteristics of the California Vase Form.—This vase 
form is a product of French ingenuity in the training of dwarf 
trees, but it has undergone very marked modification in Califor- 
nia, losing much of the accuracy of its outline and gaining vastly 
in speed of work and in bearing capacity of tree without sacri- 
ficing any practical value which inheres in the design. 
The California vase form dispenses with the central stem or 
trunk at a certain short distance above the ground, but this is 
not done for the purpose of securing a hollow or open-center 
tree, which is a leading characteristic of the old European vase- 
form. The few branches which are taken cut from the short 
stem are pruned when the tree is young to induce successive 
branches with short interspaces. At each cutting the aim is to 
get two branches from one, and as nearly as possible of equal 
vigor, so the California tree does not, except, of course, in occa- 
sional instances, show the outline of a leader from the bottom to 
the top, but there is a succession of branchings, turned this way 
or that by the skilful pruner, occupying available air space, dis- 
tributing the weight so it comes more nearly over the center of 
gravity and at the same time knitting the fibers of the branch so 
