The Florida agriculturist., 1907-07-10

long ago as twenty years, VINO Sa1Q
that pruning knife should never be
used on an orange tree, except to cut
out dead wood. For several years
the idea has been gaining ground in
this state that too much pruning ha
been done, and that nature should
be allowed to form the tree as suited
her best. The following from the
Rural Californian, shows that a
reverse change has been going on
among orange growers in California
Pruning in the deciduous orchard
has long been felt to be necessity if
one would meet the highest success
1t was found that to get size, thinning
Of the fruit, especially peaches and
apriCots, must often be resorted to,
and that by judicious pruning the
thinning could often be accomplished
in much the most economical and
speedy manner. 1t went without say
ing that the apple, plum, peach, in
deed all our decidous orchards must
know the presence of the pruning
shears. 1t has been felt that one
reason that the olive did not do bet
ter in our section was due to a lack
of this thinning of the branches. I
Institutes, held in the pretty little
town of Carpenteria, Santa Barbara
county, the Fithian olive orchard was
orchards that gave large, generous
and annual crops. It was asked of
= the manager, who, if I remember cor
rectly, was an Italian from the
orchards of Italy, why he succeeded
when others did not He said it was
entirely ly Or largely due to ample prun-
ing. A tree was procured and,
brought into the hall, and was
pruned before the audience, and as
remember the ladies were almost
brought to tears as the branches were
mercilessly severed from the tree. 1t
was the most heroic pruning that
had ever witnessed on any orchard
tree.
When I came to this section in
1894, it was not the custom to prune
any of our citrus trees, either lemon
or orange. True, it was recommend |
ed to trim out the dead branches, and
possibly to clip off any over ambitious
water sprout that essayed to get too
far into neighbor's territory. But
[ heard over and over from the best
orchardists, men who were making a
fine success of their work, that we
did not need to prune the citrus
orchards.
A few years later in San Diego
county, it was preached that we must
prune the lemon if we would meet |
with the best success. This reformer |
was also, if I rightly remember, an
Italian. Here the experience of the
olive tree was exactly repeated at an
Institute at Lemon Grove. The poor |
lemon tree was pruned with ven
geance. It was claimed that this |
letting in of the sun was of signal |
benefit, and that in wise pruning the /
fruit was secured near the ground, |
making the gathering more easy and
cheap. At the time it was much |
questioned whether this pruning of
the lemon was wise. think that
few nowadays go at it in quite the
thorough way that was practiced on
that occasion, yet, now, very few Of
our best lemon men neglect the prun-
ing shears. To cut back and thin out (
is considered a regular part of the
work Of the lemon grower. For years
after men commenced to prune the
lemon trees it was still maintained by
the orange growers that it was not
necessary to prune the orange trees.
1t seemed strange that this one tree
was different from all other of Our
fruit trees. At the Riverside institute
last February, Mr.. Chapman in his
talk on the care and management of
"a %1ooA