FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
109 
Hart: I was glad that Skinner said 
what he did as it meets somewhat with 
my experience. If Mr. Brown is in the 
room I would like to hear from him as to 
painting after pruning. That is good and 
will help. If the wound is covered with 
something to keep life in the stock, it will 
heal over. 
I have had some experience in the cut¬ 
ting back of trees that were getting pretty 
well along in years, 25 years old, and I 
hardly believe in removing the lower 
branches in cutting back. I have removed 
the entire top and not removed the lower 
branches and those trees have come back 
and are producing crops of fruit now. 
You only lose one crop but now an impor¬ 
tant point in the cutting back is that it 
should be done by the middle of March, 
or preferably February. If you wait un¬ 
til March the sun is rather hot. It is a 
good plan, where the tree has its bearing 
capacity reduced. It is a good thing in a 
grove like ours, to lose a crop for one year 
and cut it back for 15 feet. 
Skinner: You have been over on the 
other side where they have reduced it to a 
science. Tell us about that, Mr. Hume? 
Hume: Their methods differ as to 
those outlined by Mr. Tilden. You never 
see any wood that has been smothered out. 
Trees for the most part are kept open in 
the center. Now, I have never seen such 
a thing as dieback in the Spanish grove, 
or any of those relating troubles. The 
trees look as though almost every twig 
has been handled. They have groves 
which are from 100 to 150 years old, 
which are wonders. 
Waite: Mr. President, in regard to 
cutting back trees. I have cut back trees 
a good many times and afterwards had to 
remove those trees. I have always found 
where the tree was cut back to form a 
new head, it would send out good shoots 
through the summer and would make a 
good tree that later would die. In remov¬ 
ing that tree I discovered what was the 
cause. In taking off the top I had forgot¬ 
ten to root prune and consequently the 
tree would invariably die and all the 
fibrous roots would die. 
