Fruit Growing 51 



The fungus of which you have heard is the "black smut." It is 

 a result, not a cause. It grows on the honey dew exuded from scale 

 insects and if your trees have no scale they have no fungus. The 

 olive trees and pepper trees may communicate this trouble to citrus 

 trees, or vice versa — whichever gets it first gives it away to the 

 other. If you will work hard enough to kill the scale wherever 

 it appears j-ou can have all these trees, but, of course, it costs a lot 

 to fight scale on big pepper trees, and it is, therefore, wisest usually 

 to choose an ornamental tree not likely to accept the scale. 



Budding Olive Seedlings. 



/ have planted olive seeds zvhich are just sprouting now. Can these be 

 budded next June or July in the nurscsry rozi.', or can they be bench-grafted 

 the following ivinter? 



Your seedlings may make growth enough to spur-bud this sum- 

 mer. The ordinary plate-bud does not take freely with the olive. 

 Some of them may do this; other seedlings may be slow and have 

 to be budded in the second summer. Watch the size and the sap 

 flow so that the bark will lift well — which may not be at just the 

 time that deciduous trees are budded. It may be both earlier or 

 later in the season. Graft evergreens like the olive in the nursery 

 row; not by bench grafting. 



Budding Old Olives. 



/ have seedling olive trees, set out in 1904, which I wish to change 

 over to the Ascolano variety. Which is the best zvay to do it, by budding 

 or grafting, and what is the proper time? 



Twig-budding brings the sap of the stock to bear upon a young 

 lateral or tip bud, which is much easier to start than dormant buds 

 used either as buds or grafts. A short twig about an inch and a 

 half in length is taken with some of the bark of the small branch 

 from which it starts, and both twig and bark at its base are put in 

 a bark slit like an ordinary shield bud and tied closely with a waxed 

 band, although if the sap is moving freely it would probably do 

 with a string or raffia tie. Put in such buds as growth is starting 

 in the spring. 



Olives from Small Cuttings. 



In the rooting of small soft-wood olive cuttings is it necessary to 

 cover same with glass — say perhaps prepare a cold-frame and put stable 

 manure in the bottom with about eight inches of sand on top? 



It ceases to be a cold-frame when you cover in manure for 

 bottom heat; it becomes a hotbed. Varieties of olives differ greatly 

 in the readiness with which they start from small cuttings. Some 

 start freely and grow well in boxes of sand under partial shade — like 

 a lath house or cover. Some need bottom heat in such a hotbed as 

 you describe with a cloth over; some start well in a cold-frame with 

 a lath cover. To get the best results with all kinds, it is safer to use 



