154 



Journal of Agricultural Research 



Vol. XVII, No. 4 



whose tags disappeared were discarded. The writer is indebted to the 

 management of the Limoneira Co. for their friendly cooperation in this 

 work, as well as to various members of the staff of the Citrus Experiment 

 Station for their assistance in the tedious work of obtaining and com- 

 piling data. 



All biological work, especially work done in the field, is accompanied 

 by inevitable error. The present is no exception. In August, 191 6, much 

 of the small fruit on these trees was killed during their fumigation with 

 hydrocyanic-acid gas to kill insects. The following November the trees 

 blossomed profusely, perhaps due to the earlier loss of a portion of their 

 crop. In the early months of 191 7 some of the small fruit was killed by 

 freezing temperatures, in spite of the fact that oil heaters were used in 

 the grove and all vigilance was exercised to avoid losses. In June, 1917, 

 following a period of very hot weather, much of the more mature fruit 

 fell from the trees. It might be thought advisable to discard a portion 

 of the records which are known to be subject to these errors, but why 

 should one discard errors due to climatic conditions which he recognizes 

 while retaining other possibly greater errors which he does not recognize ? 



SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION OF FRUIT BUDS 



The lemon tree continually produces fruit buds, yet their distribution 

 through the year is not uniform. Information upon their seasonal dis- 

 tribution was obtained from the data for 4,545 "new buds"; that is, buds 

 which appeared on twigs subsequent to the selection of these twigs for 

 the purpose of study. These data were used to avoid the results of 

 conscious or unconscious selection by the person who chose and tagged 

 the original twigs. For example, because large clusters of buds are more 

 conspicuous, a larger percentage of the fruit buds on the tree may have 

 been chosen at one time than at another. The effect of this would have 

 been to give larger records at one season and lower at another. It 

 should be remarked, however, that since we were dealing with what is 

 recognized as "fruit wood" the average number of buds on the twigs 

 selected might be higher than for the average twig of the tree. 



The figures given in Table I show the percentage of the new buds 

 which were produced in the different months of the year and are based 

 upon the observations of 4,545 buds during a period of two years. 



Table I. — The distribution of lemon buds by months 

 [Average for 1916 and 1917] 



Januar}- . 

 February 

 March . . 

 April . . . . 

 May .... 

 June. .. . 



Buds (per- 

 centage of 

 total). 



0.31 



•37 



29.74 



36- 13 



4-55 



3.00 



Mouth. 



July 



August. .. . 

 September 

 October. .. 

 November. 

 December. 



Buds (per- 

 centage of 

 total). 



4.81 

 2. 08 

 I. t8 

 1.83 

 13. II 

 2.56 



