PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 85 



books or newspaper articles about tree-culture and tree-pruning, lay- 

 down in their writings such instructions that, if carried out generally 

 throughout our State, in some localities, especially, would result in sure 

 disaster. It will be admitted that horticulture is a progressive science, 

 and not an exact one. Such being the admitted fact, then why should 

 everybody, in every part of the State, prune their orchards the same way, 

 as laid down by writers on this and kindred subjects of horticulture? 

 It has always seemed to me the supreme illustration of vanity and con- 

 ceit for some important fruit-grower, engaged in the business south of 

 the Tehachapi range, or some one of the same kind raising fruit in the 

 Sacramento Valley, to visit the district of Visalia and criticize our mode 

 of pruning trees, without thought of the fact that the climates two hun- 

 dred and fifty miles north and two hundred and fifty miles south of 

 Tulare County are entirely different, and the soils, too; yet, the state- 

 ment is made by these self-styled horticulturists, that we of this part of 

 the big San Joaquin Valley do not understand fruit-growing, because 

 we do not follow suit in their way of pruning. 



Permit the writer to say that this age is one of improvement in hor- 

 ticulture just as much as it is in locomotion, and for one I must protest 

 against ironclad rules in pruning. Experience in fruit-growing gives 

 any of us our best lessons, and my experience in growing peaches in 

 the Visalia district will be given, and the results, and from that, you 

 gentlemen of this convention can draw your own conclusions. 



Peach Trees. — In the spring (March) of 1891, I planted a peach 

 orchard of 70 acres. In February, 1892, I planted 52 acres more. The 

 trees in both instances made phenomenal growth — a characteristic of 

 our climate. In the winter of 1892 I cut the tops (main limbs only) 

 off the 70 acres of trees, and if some limb was pinching at the crown I 

 clipped it out, but there was no cutting done over the entire tree, like a 

 barber cuts a man's hair. 



That summer (1893) the peach crop from that 70 acres sold on the 

 trees for $2,500; but the trees made such rapid growth that I made up 

 my mind to top them in June, my object being to prevent the wind 

 from having so much tree top to work on, and thus prevent breakage. 

 Observation showed me that the growth of the trees was not checked, 

 but instead of being continued vertically, it was made horizontally — to 

 me a very desirable object. The following winter I did not prune those 

 trees at all, but pursued the same course with the 52 acres as related 

 about the 70 acres. In the summer of 1894 I cut the tops off the entire 

 orchard, excepting on a block of Salways. The peach crop was sold on 

 the trees for $13,500 that season. In the winter of 1893-94 the rainfall 

 in our section was very light, and observation showed me that trees 

 made very weak fruit buds; indeed, during the season of 1894 I did 

 but little cutting, only taking out such limbs as were being pinched at 

 the crown. I left my entire peach orchard alone, excepting the block 

 of Salways mentioned, which I pruned in the winter time — Sacramento 

 Valley fruit-growers' style. The results were that my crop of peaches 

 on 112 acres was 1,100 ton**, and on the 10 acres of Salway peaches it 

 was less than one ton. There occurred in our section a severe frost on 

 the 4th of April. 



The orchardists of our county who carry out the severe pruning 

 process advocated for our peach trees had scarcely any crop, although 



