SELECTING NURSERY STOCK 

 Standard Varieties, Locally-grown Plants and Clean Trees Required 



PAUL THATEE 



Varieties. It is always safe to choose from the standard varie- 

 ties. Novelties come and go; or most of them go. Occasionally 

 a new variety, like the Elberta, is really valuable and enriches 

 everyone who has the courage to plant it while still untested. For 

 every one of this kind, however, there are several much-heralded 

 novelties that prove to be a bitter disappointment to the planter. 

 Standard varieties have been tested out on different soils and under 

 widely varying conditions; they have their weaknesses which are 

 well understood, but they have withstood the competition of past 

 years and represent the "survival of the fittest." 



Local conditions often govern the selection of varieties. The 

 orchardist who plans to sell the crop as a whole in the orchard should 

 confine his varieties to three or four, while the grower who expects 

 to depend upon local markets usually plants a succession of varieties 

 ripening throughout the season. Shipping quality, which is of 

 prime importance in the former case, might be left out of consider- 

 ation in selecting varieties for the local trade. 



"Pedigreed plants" is a catch- 

 word used by several nurseries 

 to secure trade or to justify the 

 prices charged. It has been defi- 

 nitely proven by Prof. Shamel, of 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 that with citrus fruits, such as 

 the orange and lemon, there is a 

 wide variation between trees of 

 the same variety and that this 

 can, to some extent at least, be 

 transmitted by grafting. Unfor- 

 tunately the first half of this 

 theory almost nullifies the last 

 half. All trees of any variety 

 have grown from pieces (scions) 

 of the original tree or from the 

 other trees propagated from it. 

 If these vary so as to give us 

 "superior" and inferior trees will 



Mean and extremes in nursery stock no t the Same law affect the 



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