The quotation you make refers to old bearing trees, and indicates that their pruning is not like that of the peach, which is continually shortened in to keep plenty of new wood low down.  Of course, in securing low and satisfactory branching on young apples, pears, etc., there must be cutting back, and this must be continued while you are forming the tree.  If you mean that these trees are to be permanently kept at ten feet high, you should have planted trees worked on dwarfing stocks.  Such a height does not allow a standard tree freedom enough for thrift; as they become older they will require from twice to thrice the altitude you assign to them, probably.  Pears can be more successfully kept down than apples, but not to ten feet except as dwarfs.

Pruning Old Apple Trees.

How would you prune apple trees eight or nine years old that have not been cut back?  There are a great many that have run up 20 feet high with twelve or fifteen main limbs and very few being more than two or three inches in diameter.

Remove cross branches which are interfering with others and thin out branches which seem to be crowding each other at their attachments to the trunk, by removing some of them at the starting point.  Having removed these carefully so as not to knock off spurs from other branches, study the tree as it is thus somewhat opened up and see where remaining branches can be shortened to overcome the tendency to run too high.  Do not shear off branches leaving a lot of stubs in the upper part of the tree, but always cut back a main branch to a lateral and shorten the lateral higher up if desirable.  This will keep away from having a lot of brush in the top of the tree.  Study each tree by itself for symmetry and balance of branches and proceed by judgment rather than by rules anyone can give you.

Top-Grafting Apples.

Can I graft over a few Ben Davis apple trees 25 years old or thereabouts, but thrifty and vigorous?

It is certainly possible, by the old top-grafting method which has been used everywhere with apples for centuries.  Graft during the winter.  Work on the limbs above the head so as to preserve the advantage of the old forking, using a cleft graft and waxing well.  It is usually best to graft over a part of the limbs and the balance a year later.

Will the Apples Be the Same Kind?

I have a mixed orchard, mostly Gravensteins, and I want to graft all the other trees into a Gravenstein top if I can do so and at the same time get the early Gravenstein bloom and the fruit would be as satisfactory as though on other roots.

The new tree grown from the grafts will behave just like the tree from which the scions were taken if similarly thrifty.

Places for Apples.

What quality is it in the soil in the vicinity of Watsonville that makes that country peculiarly adapted to the culture of apples?  Are there not other portions of the State where apples could be produced on a commercial basis?