82 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



into seedling stocks as early in the season as it is possible to get new 

 buds developed. This can be hastened by pinching tips of new shoots 

 from which they are to be taken, which forces development of lateral 

 buds. After budding, the top of the stock is girdled with knife or cord, 

 or partly cut away, and growth is forced on the bud so as to give a 

 small tree at the end of the first summer. This method of propagation 

 is growing in popularity in this State, especially in the foothill districts, 

 where small trees are preferred for transplanting. 



Dormant Buds. Trees are sold in dormant bud when they are 

 lifted from the nursery and sent out before any growth has started 

 on the inserted bud. The bud should be seen to be the color of healthy 

 bark. Such trees should only be used when yearlings are not to be 

 had and gain in time is very important. Care must be constantly 

 taken that growth starts from the right bud, and that it be protected 

 from breaking off by wind or animals. A considerable percentage of 

 loss is usual, and extra dormant buds should be planted in nursery 

 rows to fill vacancies. 



Yearling Trees. These are trees which have made one season's 

 growth from the bud or graft. Two-year-olds have made two sea- 

 sons' growth, and so on. The proper way to count the life of a tree 

 is from the starting of growth in the bud or graft, for this point is 

 really the birth of the tree. 



WORKING OVER OLD TREES 



Another opSHttion which may be properly considered as a branch 

 of propagation is the working over of old trees. There is much of 

 this being done every year in this State. The old seedling fruits in the 

 older settled parts of the State are being made to bear improved 

 varieties; trees of varieties illy adapted to prevailing conditions are 

 changed into strong growing and productive sorts ; trees are changed 

 from one fruit to another, when affinity permits. This will be men- 

 tioned in the discussion of the different fruits. Still another reason 

 for working over is to secure more valuable and marketable varieties. 

 Sometimes a mixed orchard is made to bear a straight line of one 

 sort which is in demand, or when the grower finds he has too many 

 trees of a single kind, which give him more fruit than he can con- 

 veniently handle when it all ripens at one time, he works in other 

 varieties so as to get a succession of varieties adapted to his purpose, 

 and thus secures a longer working season in which to dispose of them. 

 This is especially the case in large orchards of apricots, peaches, and 

 plums, when the grower depends upon drying his crop. Information 

 concerning the successive ripening of varieties can be gained from the 

 special chapters on the different fruits. For all of these reasons, and 

 others which need not be enumerated, the work of the propagator is 

 continually going on even in our large bearing orchards. As with 

 young trees, so with old, transforming the character of the tree is 

 done both by budding and grafting. 



Budding Old Trees. One way to prepare an old tree for bud- 

 ding is to cut back the branches severely during the latter part of the 



