PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 87 



is a thinning out and shrinkage. That is why the olive tree should be 

 planted so much later in the season than other trees. I have set them 

 out in May and had them do well. I think you would find the same 

 difficulty if you set out an orange tree in the month of February. You 

 would not make much of a success of it. 



Mr. Hewitt, of Pasadena: It is necessary in Los Angeles County to 

 cut back the limbs, or else the tree will not live. I planted out some 

 trees three years ago last May in Pasadena, cutting back all the stand- 

 ing branches within about two inches, and they have made the biggest 

 growth of any that have been planted in Southern California. The 

 question of cutting back for the first three or four years resolved itself 

 into whether the grower preferred to have a systematic, shapely tree and 

 wait six or seven years for the fruit. 



Mr. Roeding: What age trees were the ones you were speaking of? 



Mr. Hewitt: The trees I planted were two years old or thereabouts. 



Question, Does summer pruning of deciduous trees injure, or what bene- 

 fit, if any, is there in summer pruning? 



Major Berry: The essay on summer pruning, prepared by myself, 

 answers this question fully. The country extending about two hundred 

 and fifty miles north of here and two hundred and fifty miles south is 

 growing deciduous trees. In these localities different climates and dif- 

 ferent conditions prevail. If we prune our trees in winter time, imme- 

 diately there will grow three, four, and sometimes five shoots, and they 

 will grow in clusters four, five, and six feet high, like whips. And this 

 is about the average growth. If you take out one or two or three of 

 these branches, you must understand it naturally weakens that part 

 where there is a chance to grow, and your fruit is not sweet. I speak, of 

 course, only of our district. I have changed my idea altogether in regard 

 to the pruning of peach trees. Under these conditions it will give you 

 a peach tree whose diameter at the base will measure from 9 to 10 

 inches, so you can understand that the growth of these trees is simply 

 phenomenal. I tell you these things to illustrate that we have a phe- 

 nomenal tree growth. Since I have adopted the plan of summer prun- 

 ing, as described in my paper, the trees make a lateral growth and not 

 a vertical growth. I have adopted that plan, and it has been very 

 successful. 



Mr. Sprague: I would be glad to know whether in other districts the 

 result of summer pruning in diverting the growth is the same as in 

 Visalia. Most people thought that summer pruning forces a lateral 

 growth instead of a vertical. I would like to know if that is a common 

 experience. 



Mr. Righter : It is true that for a certain length of time in the spring 

 the tree ceases to grow, and summer pruning has a tendency to give it 

 plenty of growth. It is not growth, however, that we are looking for; it 

 is fruit. It always seemed to me like a pure case of unalloyed nonsense 

 to cut a great lot of wood from a tree, and then let it go to work to repro- 

 duce the wood. It is wholly uncalled for. I know one man, who is a 

 man of sense and observation, and he has never had a pruning knife in 

 his orchard, and he has raised more fruit than any one in his locality. 

 Now, he is a very shrewd man and a man of sense. 



Major Berry: I believe Mr. Righter is correct. I agree with him in 

 the main. I am a very poor advocate, indeed, of slaughtering trees. 



