The herald., 1897-01-23
PRUNING THE ORANGE AND
LEMON
BY ]. II. Reed before the East Side Hor-
ticultural club.

Dy u. II. Jtt0u DtbDlc tllt I<eitL oltC Iiol-
ticultural club.
insist, first. that man without some
knowledge of the relations of foliage to
growth of wood and fruit has no business
in an ormhard with pruning shears. He
is bound to do more harm than good. You
cannot give directions that will make
him safe, unless he has some acquaint-
ance with the organs, structure, habit
of growth, etc of the special kind of tree
he proposes to prune I'm going to give
but one specific rule for pruning The or
ange tree. That is, if you are not abso-
lutely sure you have good reasons for
taking off branch, don't do it.
The fundamental principle on which
all pruning should be based would seem
too self-evident to be referred to were
they not so generally ignored The foli-
age which nature provides the tree is
all needed for the best development of
wood or fruit, or both Every healthy
branch removed dlminisheS the capacity
of the tree to prerlare plant food by just
that much. The leaf is as absolutely
necessary to fit the nutriment taken up
by the roots forming fruit tissues, as the
lungs of an animal are for fitting the
blood to form animal tissues. Hence I
say no branch should be removed except
for cause. Many think only OF the part
part removed, while the loss to the re-
naming part of the tree is much more
important.
But in the case of the orange and espe-
cially the lemon tree, during the differ
ent stages of growth, there are always
more or less branches that for good reas-
ons need to be removed or checked in
their growth. We will consider some of
these reasons, commencing with the
young orange tree about to be removed
from the nursery to the field. II the tree
has good, generous top and healthy
growth, the foliage is sufficient to take
care of all the sap the entire root system
sends up. In removal, part of this
root system must be left hence a por
ton of the foliage should be removed.
But l have come to the conclusion that
one of the greatest mistakes made by
planters is I'M removing too much of the
top of young trees about to be planted.
have practiced cutting back very
slightly before planting for three years
and am thoroughly convinced that there
Is great advantage in it over the ordin-
airy severe cutting. More foliage is need
ed to prepare the sap for the removed
tree than is usually supposed. year
ago last spring we planted ten acres of
navels The contract for the trees called
for them delivered in the wagon. l told
the nursery man how I wanted them cut
before balling. He was greatly disgust
ed with the idea of leaving 80 large a
DOrtiOn OIL Une nCdUS OIL, Uul Sdlt i've
would follow instructions. When they
came to the field was much outdone to
find he had gontA to the other extreme, as
they were not cut back by half a. much
as 1 had directed. He had found that
clipping as / wishe c. 1t dionie took two or
three times as long as cutting the three
or four main branches few inches long,
as is the usual custom, and had only
taken off a few tips. 1t was too late to
Il 4I,x, ~ c,, T tra6G
they were. l have never had trees do
better l dwell on this matter because
think 1t important. | have kept close
watch during the summer of several
thousand trees put out last spring, at the
same time as ours. Most of them were
cut back the old way, few inches of
the main branches with the few leaves
they CHANGED to have. I fully believe
that these trees might have been better
today than they are by several thousand
dollars had they come from the nursery
with more foliage.
know We get in the way of thinking
that these little things don't matter
much, but they do. We must seek the
best methods in minor matters before
we can secure best results
Perhaps l should say that If you will
plant without having fair amount of
roots incased in balls, you are obliged to
cut back the top to have the tree live at
ALL but / don't believe there are any
sufficient reasons for planting bare roots
here where the nurseries and fields to
be planted are at most but a few hours
apart / car take you to orchards that
were planted last spring to first class
| trees but with bare roots, where from
one-fourtr to one-third of the trees have
been replanted during the summer from
| the failure of the first planting to grow,
and the balance have made better
growth. Out OF 1873 trees which we plant
| ed in one orchard at the same time and
under no better conditions other than
| the trees were carefully balled and tops
| but slightly cut back, but one tree failed
| to grow satisfactorily.