Shamel: Bud Variation 87 
when the bark slips easily on the stocks, 
is safest,and likely, on the whole, to 
give the best results. 
The character of the stocks to be 
used for the propagation of our best 
types of the Navel orange is probably 
more important than we realize. Un- 
fortunately we have little information 
of value on this point. It isa safe plan, 
however, to use the kind of stocks which 
have heretofore given best results until 
some better stock is discovered ayd 
thoroughly tested. The inferior seed- 
lings should be discarded and only the 
vigorous-growing and healthy ones used 
for budding work. The buds should be 
inserted fairly high in the stocks so that 
the bud union will not be buried when 
the young trees are transplanted. 
To stm up: The conservation and 
improvement of the Washington Navel 
orange and other citrus varieties can be 
effected by the isolation and propagation 
of the best and most valuable types 
through bud selection based on _per- 
formance records. The most effective 
means for determining the relative value 
of the types and of the individual trees 
in these types is performance records. 
In any event, any intelligent system 
of bud selection is better than none. 
The indiscriminate cutting of budwood 
and its propagation, for some one to 
grow and be disappointed with during 
long years, is little less than criminal, 
now that better methods have been 
tried and proven to be a success. 
Breeding the Pecan 
“My first successful work at tree breeding was in the union of the two best 
paper-shell pecan trees growing in San Saba County,” writes E. E. Risien of San 
Saba, Texas, in the Proceedings of the National Nut Growers’ Association. ‘‘The 
nuts of these trees were not large, but had qualities in them that I wanted to see 
blended.” Cross-pollination in May, 1904, was interrupted by storms, but 
resulted in the production of fifteen nuts. ‘‘The best nuts are not found near the 
body of the tree in protected parts, so I didn’t consider these fair samples. These 
fifteen nuts all germinated and grew. The mother was San Saba, the father tree 
Sloan. These fifteen little trees were not long in showing great variations both in 
growth and in the leaves. The next year they were cut to the ground to get 
buds suitable for top-working. By managing them this way, possibly eight or 
ten years were saved in the time of fruiting. Anyway, I got to see sample nuts 
from the union of these two old trees, that were growing 27 miles apart, in five 
years from planting the seed. This little crop of nuts was an eye-opener, for they 
revealed to what extent those two trees bred back to the common wild types, 
which were mostly in evidence; and that the pollen proved to be the prepotent 
factor was also plainly shown, both in the character of the trees and in the nuts.” 
Further crosses were then made; a combination of the varieties San Saba (seed- 
bearing parent) and Atwater (pollen-bearing parent) resulted in a lot of poor 
trees, but one prize, named Venus, a vigorous tree with large, highly colored nuts, 
which ripen a month later than either of the parents. “My third experiment was 
to use Texas Prolific for the mother tree, Atwater for the father tree. I have 
fruited a great many seedlings of the Texas Prolific fertilized by the winds and 
insects, all of which have been disappointing; but in fruiting the offspring from the 
union of these two trees the result was to get some prizes and many surprises. 
The perfect blending, however, I only found in one. It is a beauty; I have named 
it Banquet. It is large, too—very large; immensely prolific; ripens a week earlier 
than either parent, and retains that bright coloring characteristic of both sides. 
This alone gives it a distinction from the common herd. In fact, with this the 
‘razor-back’ stock may now be considered pretty well bred out, and from the 
nucleus which I now have, it will take but another generation or two of our well- 
bred western nuts to invite criticism from the most fastidious.”’ 
