CALIFORNIA CITRUS CULTURE. 29 
that sandy soils will be more retentive of moisture if well supplied with 
humus; and all should remember that no thorough orchardist will wait 
until his trees show by wilt of foliage that they are thirsty before he 
turns on the water. 
PRUNING. 
After the shaping up of the yearling orange tree little more pruning 
is called for, other than to cut out all the dead limbs or to cut back or 
off the tco ambitious suckers or water sprouts; though if the trees are 
headed low, as they should be, it will be wise to trim up from the ground 
only enough to permit cultivation of all the surface soil close up to the 
trees. This low heading protects the trees from the sun. Some of our 
most excellent orchardists prune, even the orange, more thoroughly, 
cutting out the weakest of all competing branches and letting in the 
sun, believing that they thus secure larger foliage and more fruit wood. 
With the lemon, more pruning is usually done. It is found that more 
and better fruit is secured if the trees are cut back and the centers 
somewhat thinned. It is now the common practice of our best lemon 
growers to thin out and cut back the branches every year. These 
prunings in small orchards may be cut up by the use of a hand pruner, 
though many orchardists use a cutting box, which runs by power and 
is drawn between the rows of trees, to cut these prunings into rather 
short lengths, which are then plowed under. I believe this is a very 
wise practice. Those with small holdings may combine and secure a 
. power cutter to be used in common. There is one custom among almost 
all citrus fruit men that I can but believe is wholly wrong. I refer to 
the fact that the branches are permitted to hug the ground. This 
precludes cultivation close up to the trees, and if there is a growth of 
grass or weeds under the trees in early spring and on up to summer, 
this is likely to be untouched, and there is a heavy loss of water by 
transpiration from this undergrowth. If the soil is not broken up, it 
is dead soil, and there is great consequent loss. I am firmly of the 
opinion that the whole soil close up to the tree should be mellowed 
deeply at each cultivation of the orchard, even though general practice 
is to the contrary, so that there may be a splendid, dry, fine earth 
mulch, of at least four inches, always covering the entire surface of 
the ground. Some of our ablest orchardists, notably Mr. C. C. Chap- 
man of the ‘‘Old Mission’’ brand, practice this low pruning, and are 
