62 FLORIDA FRUITS ORANGES. 



CHAPTER VI. 



BUDDED TREES OR SEEDLINGS? 



The former most emphatically. 



Time was, and that only a few years ago too, when the 

 majority of growers favored the seedling tree, because it 

 was said to grow larger, fruit more prolifically, and bear 

 longer than the budded tree. But the tide of opinion has 

 decidedly veered around nowadays, as a greater degree of 

 experience is gained and fuller scientific investigation 

 brought to bear on the mooted question. 



Thomas Meechan, editor of the Gardener's Monthly and 

 Horticulturist, of Philadelphia, who is one of the recog- 

 nized authorities on horticultural matters in the United 

 States, tells us most decidedly that budding orange trees 

 does not dwarf them in the least, unless a dwarf scion is 

 used ; and this opinion, coming from such a source, should 

 carry conviction with it, even if there were no other avail- 

 able testimony, of which, however, there is plenty. It is 

 impossible to understand the foundation upon which the 

 theory has been based, that by budding we sacrifice size 

 of tree and quality of fruit, for certainly experience does 

 not demonstrate either of these charges. In the first place 

 budding orange trees is comparatively a new thing with us 

 all, while seedling trees date back for many years. Where 

 a fair comparison between the trees is attainable it is proved 

 that the budded trees are fully as large as the seedlings of . 

 the same age. 



There is one thing that has probably misled many 

 superficial observers in this connection, and that is 

 that trees that bear early and continuously, as budded 



