123 



I contend that we need trees which will produce the maxi- 

 mum of first class merchantable fruit in the minimum tim'3 

 and at a minimum cost; and if we find that yield is an he- 

 reditary factor, it will become a very important matter to 

 the future planter of commercial orchards. 



To return to our citrus fruits we find then that the num- 

 ber of bud variations is considerable. Taking the Eureka 

 ranch in which the Washington Navel orange is grown ex- 

 clusively, or almost exclusively, and where considerable of 

 the work was done, on a block of 150 acres, generally con- 

 sidered to be the most uniform grove of its kind in the State 

 of California, the fruit from which commands an extra price 

 in Eastern markets on account of its fine character and its 

 consistent uniformity, a grove in which to the casual ob- 

 server the trees and fruit are notable for their uniformity in 

 appearance. A close study of the trees in this grove has re- 

 vealed the fact that there are at least seven frequently oc- 

 curring types of the Washington Navel orange. Five of the 

 types are unproductive; they bear low grade fruit which is 

 imdesirable and unprofitable. Out of about 13,500 trees 

 over 1,000 trees have been located as absolutely undesirable. 

 In fact, at the end of three years the National Orange Co. 

 regarded these so undesirable that they have rebudded them, 

 using buds from selected trees of the standard type of th^ 

 Washington Navel orange. These rebudded trees do not 

 represent all of the undesirable type trees present in this 

 grove, from the fact that only the most striking and certain 

 cases of undesirable types of trees were rebudded. Dr. 

 Shamel states that in these cases they felt absolutely sure 

 that there could not possibly be any mistake. The striking 

 feature of this condition lies in the fact that the trees in this 

 grove were propagated from buds, but shortly removed from 

 the two parent Navel trees in Riverside. This, of course, i3 

 the most interesting statement because it appears to throw 

 doubt upon the whole value of bud selection and bud propa- 

 gation. If such a remarkable difference should occur in so 

 short a space of time, one may question whether there is 



