MANUAL OF GENERAL AGRICULTURE. 77 



two or three inches in length at the time of planting. This 

 method of establishing a vineyard is the accepted French 

 one and has proved successful in California. 



63. PROPAGATION OF THE ORANGE. 



(The following applies to the lemon and pomelo as 

 well as to the orange.) 



The propagation of the orange differs considerably 

 from the propagation of deciduous trees. 



1. Selecting and Planting the Seed. Select seeds 

 from the sweet orange, Florida sour orange or pomelo 

 with which to grow the stock. Plant the seeds in a seed 

 bed sheltered by a lath house or in the open, but in either 

 case the seed bed should be well drained, mixed with a 

 light soil and mulch and finally covered with a layer of 

 light sand. In preparing in spring plant the seeds an inch 

 deep and 1% inches apart. 



2. Digging the Seedlings. One year later remove the 

 seedlings to the nursery, planting them in rows. The rows 

 should be about 39 inches apart for horse cultivation, but 

 for hand cultivation 16 inches is sufficient. In either case 

 plant the trees about one foot apart in the rows. 



3. Budding the Seedlings. The seedlings should be 

 budded after being in the nursery either one or two years. 

 A week or two before the operation, strip the seedlings by 

 removing all leaves and thorns from the lower six inches 

 of the trunk to make room for the bud. Insert the bud 

 two or three inches above the ground. The best time to 

 bud is in the spring. Budding may also be done in mid- 

 summer or in the fall. The growth from the summer buds 

 is likely to be killed by frost during the first winter. Fall 

 buds lie dormant during winter and start the following 

 spring. When the bud attains 6 to 8 inches growth, re- 

 move the top of the tree as shown in figure 11, c. 



4. Transferring to Orchard. After one or two years 

 the trees should be transferred to the orchard. The most 

 common method is to "ball them," that is, to remove a 

 ball of earth with the roots, tying a sack around them to 

 keep the soil from falling away. 



