Pruning the Lemon. 375 
which it seems naturally disposed. The orange provides itself 
with satisfactory bearing wood, as a rule; the lemon devotes it- 
self, even when it is old enough to know better, to a tangy ram- 
bling wood growth with bearing wood upon the ends of willowy 
rods where it is swept about in the wind and burned in the sun, 
instead of nestling it neatly among the leaves as the orange does. 
The rational proceeding with the lemon is, then, to develop 
it at first into a low, stocky and strong form, such as is described 
in Chapter XII for deciduous trees. This may be secured by 
pinching so as not to allow running out of long branches at first, 
or it may be secured by severe cutting back of the long growths 
of the young tree. In either case low branching will be secured. 
Make good selection from these branches to form a symmetrical 
tree and cut back the growth which comes upon them to cause 
it to branch in its turn. In this way plenty of good, strong 
wood is secured low down, and with short distances between the 
laterais. -Strong, upright shoots (wrongly called “suckers’’) 
which break out at points where branches are not desired, should 
be rubbed off or cleanly cut away. Having secured about the 
right branching in about the right places no strong sprouts 
should be allowed, and the tree should be encouraged to make 
smaller laterals; which will be the bearing wood. 
When this purpose is borne in mind it appears that the 
pruning of the lemon involves many of the considerations urged 
in‘Chapter XII for deciduous fruits: the method of making a 
strong, short trunk, the arrangement of branches, the preven- 
tion of long growths, the encouragement of low, bearing twigs, 
the thinning of twigs to prevent the tree from becoming too 
dense, the points to be observed in cutting back, not by shear- 
ing but by treating each branch according to its position and 
vigor—all these must be borne in mind by the lemon pruner. 
Tt must also be remembered that the work must be resolutely 
continued and the tree always prevented from wild growth and 
kept down to bearing on the smaller twigs, which are promoted 
and retained for that purpose. The building-down process de- 
scribed for the young orange is easily applicable to the lemon. 
Old lemon trees which have been allowed to grow away 
into a long, rangy form and to bear fruit too high for profit, can 
be brought down to good form by severe cutting back and after- 
treatment of the new shoots, keeping the smaller horizontal 
growths and cutting out cleanly the strong upright shoots, or 
cutting them back if more branches are needed. The time 
‘for pruning the lemon depends upon the end in view; if a 
young tree, to promote wood growth, prune at the opening of 
the growing season in the spring; in older trees, to repress 
growth and advance fruiting, prune in midsummer. 
