R. M. Teague Nurseries, San Dimas, Cal. 
11 
One Million seed bed stock grown in the open nine months from planting. 
though it was at the season of the year when there 
was no fruit on the trees. 
From these facts it will be seen that it is hazardous 
to cut budwood from any tree without fruit to show 
the type and quality, and it is much more desirable, 
in fact it is the practice of the leading nurserymen, 
to select buds from trees or orchards having a per- 
formance record covering a period of from two to 
four or more years showing the trees to be consistent 
and regular bearers. In this way bud variation is 
overcome and the risk of planters getting trees that 
may prove untrue to type is reduced to a minimum. 
In keeping performance records the orchard trees 
are each numbered, usually by the use of three sets 
of figures. The orchard is first divided into blocks 
of five or ten acres in each block, and numbered block 
one, two, three, etc. The rows are then numbered 
usually commencing at the irrigation head, for ex- 
ample, the eighth tree in the fourth row of block one 
would be numbered 1-4-8. 
The fruit from each tree is picked and placed in 
separate boxes and a record made of the number of 
full boxes and an estimate of the partly filled boxes, 
or, if it is desired to be more exact, there are methods 
provided for weighing the fruit from each tree. By 
following this method for two or more years and 
comparing the production for each year, it can easily 
be determined which trees are profitable and those 
that are not. The latter trees should be worked 
over by top budding from budwood selected from the 
profitable producing trees. 
BUDS FROM RECORD TREES 
Buds selected from trees having a good perform- 
ance record if taken when the fruit is still on the 
tree (so as to avoid getting wood from any sporting 
limbs that might be present) will produce trees show- 
ing little, if any, variation from the parent tree. The 
benefit to be derived from bud selection was recog- 
nized by the California Fruit Growers' Exchange, 
and a bud selection department was established under 
the management of the Fruit Growers' Supply Com- 
pany, a subsidiary corporation, to carry on the work 
of selecting and selling bud wood from trees bearing 
good types of fruit and having a high performance 
record. These records are kept as elsewhere de- 
scribed, and the work is under the supervision of com- 
petent Exchange men so as to insure accuracy. The 
buds are also cut by experienced men, care being ex- 
ercised to see that only fruiting wood is taken from 
