Fruit Growing 61 



resin, olive oil and a small amount of lard to soften it. Do you think 

 that the action of the lard on the buds zvould cause them to rot.' 



Consider first whether the buds which you use are sufficiently 

 developed; that is, a sufficient amount of hardness and maturity 

 attained by the twig from which you took these buds. Second, use 

 a waxed band, drawing it quite tightly around the bark, above and 

 below the bud, covering the bud itself without too much pressure 

 for several days, then loosening the band somewhat, but carefully 

 replacing over all but the bud point. It is necessary to exclude the 

 air sufficiently, but not wholly. The use of a soft fat like olive oil 

 or lard is not desirable. If you use oil at all for the purpose of 

 softening, linseed oil, as used by painters, is safer because of its dis- 

 position to dry without so much penetration. Having used olive 

 oil and lard together you had too much soft fatty material. 



Budding Orange Seedlings in the Orchard. 



What are the objections or advantages of planting sour stock seed- 

 lings where one zvishes the trees and one or tivo years later bud into the 

 branches instead of budding the young stock lozv on the trunk? 



Planting the seedling and at some future time cutting back the 

 branches and grafting in the head above the forks is an expensive 

 operation and loses time in getting fruit. You will get very irregu- 

 lar trees and be disappointed in the amount of re-working you will 

 have to do. Suckers must be always watched for; that has to be 

 done anyway, but a sucker from a wild stock is worse in effects if 

 you happen to overlook it. Avoid all such trouble by planting good 

 clean trees budded in nursery rows. You may have to do rebudding 

 later, if you want to change varieties, and that is trouble enough. 

 Do not rush at the beginning into all the difficulties there are. 



Grapefruit and Nuts. 



Peaches, pears and plums predominate in this section, but zvould not 

 grapefruit, almonds and English zvalnuts be just as profitable? What is 

 your idea about English zvalnuts on black zvalnut root? 



You can expect grapefruit to succeed under conditions which 

 favor the orange. Therefore, if oranges are doing well in your dis- 

 trict, grapefruit might also be expected to succeed on the same soils 

 and with the same treatment. Planting of almonds should proceed 

 upon a demonstration that the immediate location is suited to al- 

 monds, because they are very early to start and very subject to 

 spring frost and should not be planted unless you can find bearing 

 trees which have demonstrated their acceptance of the situation by 

 regular and profitable crops. English walnuts are less subject to 

 frosts because they start much later in the season. They need, how- 

 ever, deep, rich land which will be sure not to dry out during the 

 summer. English walnuts are a perfect success upon the California 

 black walnut root. 



