ORANGE CULTURE IX CALIFORNIA, 165 



grown on gravelly soil. Trees that overbear one year will pro- 

 duce poorer and sourer oranges the next. There is no difference 

 in the fruit of seedling trees under similar conditions. 



Mr. Shorb disagreed with Mr. Rose. He found some trees 

 bearing good fruit, and others poorer fruit, under the same con- 

 ditions. He favored budding on orange stock. 



Mr. Berry presented two fine seedling oranges from a tree 

 nine years old, twenty-three feet in hight and set en inches in 

 circumference, and desired to have them compared with the 

 best budded fruit. 



Mr. Barrows agreed with Mr. Shorb, that localities and quality 

 of soil have their influence on the quality of the fruit, no matter 

 what kind is planted. He has in his yard an orange tree twenty 

 years old, that has borne bitter fruit, owing to its unfavorable 

 surroundings. He claimed two advantages for budding. Trees 

 should be budded at two years of age, or three at the most. 

 The trees will fruit earlier, and the fruit will be uniformly better. 

 They worked ten years in Australia to find they were raising 

 poor, sour oranges. They then turned their attention to bud- 

 ding, and have universally practiced it since. 



Mr. Kercheval stated that his trees, from which Mr. Berry 

 obtained the oranges he exhibited, bore about two hundred 

 oranges each last year, and about the same number this year ; 

 that they are now twenty-three feet high, seven inches in cir- 

 cumference, and are only nine years old. He had forty-five 

 trees of the same age, only a portion of which had commenced 

 bearing. 



Mr. Rose had seven hundred trees, six hundred of which bore 

 at eight years of age. The seedlings of Los Angeles county 

 were raised from seed of Tahiti oranges, which are of a pale 

 yellow, but they are of a dark orange color here; hence, 

 climate, soil, etc., make the quality of the fruit. 



Mr. Woodhead had seen Mr. Kercheval's trees, and he con- 

 sidered them the finest in the county. He saw no reason why 

 they should have made an unusual growth. In different parts 

 of the United States, different varieties of the apple take the 

 lead. The White Winter Pearmain takes the lead in this 

 county, but probably with the exception of California, it does 



