60 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



may be, a man with good legs and arms, and a good head full of 

 special knowledge to make them go, can handle twenty acres and 

 if he does it right you ought to pay him twice as much as an ordi- 

 nary ranch hand. 



Roots for Orange Trees. 



IVhat are the conditions most favorable to orange trees budded upon 

 sour stock; also upon sivcct stock and trifoliata? 



The sour stock is believed to be more hardy against trying con- 

 ditions of soil moisture — both excess and deficiency, and diseases 

 incident thereto. The sweet stock is a free growing and satisfactory 

 stock and most of the older orchards are upon this root, but it is 

 held to be less resistant of soil troubles than the sour stock, and 

 therefore propagators are now largely using the latter. The trifoli- 

 ata has been promoted as more likely to induce dormancy of the 

 top growth during cold weather, because of its own deciduous habit. 

 It has also been advocated as likely to induce earlier maturity in 

 the fruit and thus minister to early marketing. The objection urged 

 against it has been a claimed dwarfing of the tree worked upon it. 



Citrus Budding. 



/ zvish to bud some Maltese blood orange trees to pomelos and lem- 

 ons. Will they make good stock for them, and, if so, is it necessary to 

 cut below the original bud? 



It is possible to bud as you propose, and it is not necessary to 

 go back to the old stock. Work in above the forks. 



No Citrus Fruits on Lemon Roots. 



Would it be any advantage to bud the Washington Navel on grape- 

 fruit and lemon roots? 



The grapefruit or pomelo is a good root for the orange, and 

 some propagators prefer it. The lemon root is not used at present, 

 because of its eflfect in causing a coarse growth of tree and fruit 

 and because it is more subject to disease than the orange root. In 

 fact, we grow nearly all lemons on orange roots. 



Budding Oranges. 



My first attempt at budding, I cut 20 buds and immediately inserted 

 in stock of Mexican sour orange "Amataca." I left bands on them for 

 ten days at zuhich time about half seemed to have "stuck," but after a fezv 

 days the bark curled azcay and the buds dried up and died. I then 

 tried again, but left the bands on for thirteen days and lightly tied 

 strings around bclozv the bud to prevent the bark from curling, and also 

 put grafting zvax in the cut and over the bud. These appeared fresh 

 and green at time of taking off the bands, but three weeks later 

 I found them rotted. The grafting wax used was made of beeswax, 



