Shamel: Washington Navel Orange 



445 



of neighboring leaves varied from 

 broadly winged to wingless, winged on 

 one side and wingless on the opposite 

 side, very small to very large, and from 

 one to three sets of wings. On one of 

 the standard type Bahian navel trees, a 

 sporting braneh was found bearing 

 typical flattened and wrinkled so-called 

 Australian navel fruits, as shown in 

 Fig. 5. One entire orchard of several 

 thousand trees was observed planted 

 to the Australian type of navel orange. 



In one orchard we found well-estab- 

 lished instances of reversions of the 

 navel to the selecta variety of orange. 

 In this orchard the owner, Col. Luiz de 

 Suze Demetrio, one of the leading navel 

 orange propagators of Bahia, told us 

 that three typical fruiting laranja selecta 

 trees in his orchard were grown from 

 buds cut from a navel orange tree and 

 propagated on sour orange stocks by 

 himself. 



Variability in time of ripening fruits, 

 size, shape, navel characters, color, 

 thickness of rind, amount of juice, 

 character of rag, quality, and other 

 characters, were particularly marked. 

 To the writer, the most interesting 

 observation in this connection was the 

 variation in time of ripening the fruits, 

 indicating the possibility of controlling 

 this character in some measure through 

 bud selection. 



Most of the types of navel oranges 

 found in California were observed in the 

 orchards at Bahia. 



It may be of some interest to note 

 that the writer has found several of 

 these typical budsports in the fruits 

 produced by the two parent Washington 

 navel trees at Riverside. 



In a consideration of the factors in- 

 volved in the successful development of 

 the navel orange industry in California, 

 the work of the pioneer orange planters 

 must not be overlooked. These men 

 and women settled in a desert. All of 

 the problems incidental to bringing 

 under cultivation this arid land were 

 met with sublime courage, intelligence, 

 and resourcefidness. Most of the set- 

 tlers were fresh from plentifully watered, 

 fertile lands and established conditions 

 of eastern agricultural sections. The 

 taming of the sagebrush lands, the 

 development of water for irrigation, 

 the discovery of new methods of culture 

 to meet new conditions, needed iron 

 determination and strong faith. How 

 well these pioneers succeeded is shown 

 by the wonderful orchards, perhaps the 

 most perfect of all time, the beautiful 

 homes nestling in the orange groves, 

 and the highly cultured people who are 

 enjoying the results of the efforts of the 

 pioneers. It has been said that the 

 man who causes two blades of grass to 

 grow where one grew before is a public 

 benefactor. What can we say of these 

 pioneer orange growers who caused 

 beautiful and useful orchards to grow 

 where nothing grew before ? 



Berkeley Meeting of A. G. A. 



More then 300 persons attended various sessions of the twelfth annual meeting 

 of the American Genetic Association at Berkeley, Cal., August 2-6. 



Two general sessions were held, while those interested in plant breeding met in 

 three sessions and eugenics had one session. The program of every session was 

 crowded. 



As many of the papers as possible will be printed in the Journal of Heredity; 

 the rest will appear in various other pubHcations to which they seem most adapted. 



It was decided to continue meeting in connection with the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. 



A Committee on Nomenclature was appointed by the presiding officer. Dr. E. 

 B. Babcock, consisting of Herbert J. Webber, Chairman; R. Ruggles Gates, George 

 H. vShuil, W. E. Castle, Raymond Pearl, H. S. Jennings and Paul Popenoe. 



