366 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



Intensive Work in the Citrus Nursery. In addition to the fore- 

 going general reflections the reader may be interested in a specific 

 sketch of pushing a citrus nursery as described by Mr. R. E. Hodges : 



Mr. Allen Dodson, of Los Angeles county, put 17 hay-rack loads of the rottenest 

 manure he could find on a sandy space 290x60 feet. This had to be worked and 

 reworked to leave no lumps of manure. The sand is necessary to prevent baking. 

 Then he planted 8% bushels of seed, watered carefully about every other day 

 and kept the weeds down for six weeks before they came up. They grew about 

 a foot before cold weather came. Around the seedling bed were set upright 

 2x4s twenty feet apart and 6 feet out of the ground for head-room. From post 

 to post were 1x3 boards on which lath were nailed upright about 1^ inches apart. 

 Above these laths is a two-foot open space and then a roof similar to the sides 

 but made in 20- foot squares so it may be easily removed. This open space (to 

 get head-room) should also be lathed, on the south and west at least, because 

 the low winter sun shines directly onto the seedlings and may turn them yellow. 

 The shadows under the lath are perpetually moving with the sun so that direct 

 light never stays long at a time on a given tree. The movable roof makes it 

 easy to set up the outfit on new ground. One year Mr. Dodson sold 185,000 

 seedlings from a certain plat and tried it again the next year on the same place, 

 getting only 4000 salable ones. He had used only a third as much manure the 

 second year, thinking to have some advantage from that applied before. 



BUDDING THE ORANGE 



The orange root is the best foundation for an orange tree, and the 

 seedling sweet orange has been the main reliance. The seedling of the 

 Florida sour orange is now being used almost to the exclusion of other 

 stock, for its general hardiness and thrift and to escape gum disease. 

 It has not been entirely free, though conceded to be less subject 

 to the trouble. Oranges have also been worked upon pomelo seedlings, 

 which force a strong growth, root deeply and are satisfactory. Of 

 course, many lemon, and recently many pomelo trees, have been worked 

 over the orange, but in these cases the orange root was below the 

 other wood. All lemon roots are not suitable for the orange. The 

 Japanese practice of dwarfing with the citrus trifoliata has never pre- 

 vailed in this State. Recently the trifoliata stock has been used to a 

 small extent to secure earlier ripening of fruit, and the tree claimed to 

 be sufficiently free growing, but the experience favors the other roots 

 for standard trees. 



Budding is almost exclusively adopted for working in desirable 

 varieties. The best time to bud is about the time the new growth 

 starts on the seedling in the spring, though some practice budding in 

 midsummer and fall. Good, well-matured buds only should be used; 

 those from both base and tip of the shoots are frequently defective. 

 Buds should be taken only from fruiting branches; not from sterile 

 sucker growth, and from trees which are known to bear abundantly 

 a good type of fruit. For spring budding, buds can be taken from 

 fruiting trees and kept dormant in moist sand in a cool place until 

 the seedlings show a sap-flow suitable for budding. 



The method of budding described in Chapter IX is that usually 

 employed in budding citrus trees, and the rules for loosening the liga- 

 ture, etc., are similar. Midsummer buds are apt to have soft growth 

 at the coming of cold weather ; fall buds remain dormant until spring ; 



