Cherry trees under good growing conditions and proper care are very long lived in California and bear abundant crops when thirty and more years of age.  In the San Jose district and elsewhere there are orchards considerably older than the limit stated and are still very profitable.  If your trees have been so neglected that the branches have died back, the trees should be pruned, of course, cutting out all dead wood and shortening weak or dying branches to a point where a good strong shoot can be found.  Then a good application of farmyard manure plowed in during the rainy season, followed by summer cultivation for moisture retention.  Although the cherry is very hardy, it is quite likely to suffer on light soils which become too dry.  On such soils as yours there is little if any danger of too much water in the winter, unless the land lies low, but the injury to the tree comes from the lack of moisture during the summer time, and this, with your abundant rainfall, you can probably assure by thorough summer cultivation.

Renewing Cherry Trees.

We have cherry trees set out diamond shape about 16 feet apart.  We cannot take out every other tree and have any order, so we ask you if it would be possible to cut the trees back and keep them pruned down to a smaller size.  The trees are about 20 years old and are dying back quite badly.

If the trees are dying for lack of summer moisture it is idle to do much for them until you can give them irrigation right after the fruit ripens.  The cherry tree takes kindly to cutting back and will give good new fruit-bearing shoots if the roots are in good condition.  It is desirable to remove surplus branches entirely rather than to cut back everything to a definite height, the branches to be removed being those which show disposition to die back and those which are running out too far so as to reduce the space between the trees or to interfere with branches from other trees.  Branches which are failing above can in some cases be cut back to a strong thrifty lateral branch below.  Shortening-in branches high up is less desirable because it forces out too much new growth in the top of the tree and carries the fruit so high that picking would be expensive.  All cuts of any size should be painted to prevent the wood from checking.

Pruning Cherries.

I have cherry trees in their third season which have been given the usual winter pruning.  The trees are putting forth a great many more branches than are required, and naturally many of the branches are growing across the tree.  In cutting these extra branches, I am informed that there is a way to trim them so that they will eventually form fruit spurs.  I had an idea that in order to do this it would be well to cut about one inch from the main branch.  Some one has told me that this would merely cause the little branch to sprout again.