174 ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



varieties, will find a more ready demand and sale at fully fifty 

 per cent, advance over those shipping only promiscuous and 

 variable fruit. Besides, budded trees fruit much earlier. Certain 

 standard varieties of the orange are remarkaole for their fruit- 

 fulness, as well as for their excellence of quality. We choose 

 such for propagation, rejecting all others. We invariably get 

 fruit in four years from the seed, and, seven times out of ten, in 

 three years from the seed; that is, we bud on two-year-old 

 stocks in May or June and get blossoms and fruit in the fol- 

 lowing year.' 



"This experience is corroborated by my own in this county. 

 Again, he says : 



"'Seedling trees are generally eight, nine and ten years coming 

 into bearing, and while we get only twenty dollars per thousand 

 for them, we get from forty to fifty dollars per thousand for our 

 select varieties. They are nearly twice as fruitful as the seed- 

 lings, and in many instances produce four times as many. We 

 bud Navel, Blood, St. Michael and Mandarin. Our Sugar 

 Sweet usually requires two years from the bud in which to fruit. 

 The sooner your California fruit growers understand this, the 

 better it will be for them.' 



"It appears to me that Mr. Atwood has told the story, and 

 solved the problem, 'Will it pay to bud the orange?' in a most 

 masterly manner. It is evident that the people of Florida have 

 found out, to a tune of fifty per cent, or more, that budding the 

 orange pays, and I think we of California will soon learn the 

 same lesson, if not by precept and example, by sad experience. 



"We have in our orchards specimen seedling trees bearing 

 oranges equal, perhaps, to the best oranges of Florida or any 

 other country. With these let us establish a reputation for our 

 fruit, and maintain that reputation by multiplying these varieties 

 by budding our young orchards. We also have imported va- 

 rieties now fruiting, of large size and uniform quality, of fine, 

 agreeable flavor, splendid deep orange color and symmetrical 

 in shape, that are not only early fruiters but regular and heavy 

 bearers, paying from the commencement. The trees are also 

 almost entirely thornless, and of handsome shape and habit of 

 growth. The Mediterranean Sweet, a variety that I have fruit- 



