CALIFORNIA CITRUS CULTURE. 19 



admit of cultivating by horse without injury, and fifteen inches apart 

 in the rows. This gives ample room for digging and balling. The 

 plants are easily loosened in the seed bed by the use of a long spade, 

 and should be quickly set, as the roots must not be permitted to become 

 dry. Only robust plants should be transplanted to the nursery. As 

 Mr. R. M. Teague says, "the best are none too good." Some advise 

 keeping puny plants for two years in the seed beds. It were better to 

 discard them entirely. To take up the seed bed plants, a four or five 

 tined potato fork is excellent. It will not cut the roots as will a spade. 

 If the weather is hot it is well to place shade boards above the young 

 plants. The nursery should be carefully watered and cultivated for 

 two years, when the nursery trees should be ready for budding. This 

 insures larger and stronger trees, and the buds can be set six inches 

 above the ground. Budding is possible whenever the bark slips easily, 

 and may be done in March and April. Summer budding is not uncom- 

 mon, though the best time to set the buds is in September and October. 

 The buds will start as soon as the sap begins to flow ; will become strong 

 before fall and will resist the cold of winter. Here, again, it is well to 

 select only the best of the young trees. The bud union is the weak 

 place* in a citrus tree, and should be well above the reach of irrigating 

 water as a preventive of gum disease. 



SELECTING BUDS. 



The selection of the buds is, I think, the most important step in the 

 whole range of citrus culture, and is reason enough for one to grow 

 his own trees, at least from the time they are set in the nursery. Only 

 buds from tested trees, whose performance has been most excellent in 

 both quality and quantity for a number of years, should ever be 

 accepted. This gives us pedigreed stock. In this way we hope to double 

 our output and profit. We must remember what selection has done for 

 corn in Illinois and Iowa. (See article on breeding citrus trees, by 

 A. D. Shamel, The Monthly Bulletin, California State Commission of 

 Horticulture, Vol. I, No. 9, August, 1912.) 



Mr. R. M. Teague uses only selected buds. He allows his patrons to 

 furnish their own buds if they so prefer, though this privilege is rarely 

 accepted. The past season only two persons accepted the offer, though 

 he sold over two hundred thousand trees. Only plump, vigorous buds 

 should be used. The method of inserting the bud is explained by 

 Figs. 8 and 9, where is shown the T-shaped cut, the peeling of the bark 

 and the cutting and insertion of the bud. The tying by budding twine 

 or waxed strip of cloth is well shown. Some of the twigs with foliage are 

 left on the young plants to promote vigor (Fig. 10), though not many, 



