ORANGE CULTURE IX CALIFORNIA. 169 



"It is a fact that a seedling tree has a longer limb, is hardier 

 and healthier than one that is grafted or budded. 



"I believe in experimenting in all things. That improve- 

 ments will be made by selecting from our seedlings is almost 

 certain ; but that this improvement will be very slow, is, in its 

 very nature, certain, for our orange is an original type. It has 

 as yet no inherent variation in its nature. To get the first dis- 

 position to part from its original type will be difficult, and it 

 will be but slight at first ; but perseverance will in time doubt- 

 less receive its reward. Again, it is much more difficult to im- 

 prove a good fruit than one of very ordinary quality, and it is 

 not easy for me to conceive in what direction our orange, grown 

 in the best localities, can be improved. I would demand some- 

 thing more than fine specimens, which are very deceptive, to 

 induce me to plant largely of any new variety. I would first 

 wish to try them in a small way for a considerable length of 

 time. 



"Time will be required, too, in which to determine what stocks 

 will be the best, for the stock has a marked influence upon the 

 bud or graft. I have say one hundred and fifty orange trees 

 budded upon the China lemon. At the time of taking the buds 

 the tree from which they were taken had the largest and best 

 oranges. All of these trees bore some three or four years 

 earlier than other trees not budded. The oranges these trees 

 bear have a thicker rind, are more acid, and the pulp is a lighter 

 yellow and less juicy (more pulpy). The size of the orange is, 

 perhaps, a little larger, but the increase in size is owing wholly 

 to the increased thickness of the rind. The tree is now much 

 smaller than the seedling of the same age, and, consequently, 

 bears fewer oranges a difference which will continue to in- 

 crease. The buds were all taken from one tree, yet the oranges 

 on the different trees, and in different years, are as various as 

 are those of my seedling trees, owing to difference in soil, full- 

 ness of bearing, etc. Then, again, they bore early earlier than 

 seedlings not because they were budded on a stock whose 

 nature it is to bear k young, but because the stock, being of a 

 smaller and slower growth, checked the flow of sap; and this is 

 favorable to the development of fruit buds rather than of woody 



