ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. igi 



From the Rural Press of the same issue : " In answer to an 

 inquiry some weeks ago, we stated that the proper stock on 

 which to work the orange was the orange root, and not roots of 

 the lemon family. This is unequivocally the testimony of the 

 latest European authorities to whose writings we have had ac- 

 cess, and it is the decision of the great mass of our California 

 propagators." 



The editor of the Press says. if any accumulative evidence 

 be required on this subject, the parties requiring it can visit Los 

 Angeles, as he has done, and they will return satisfied, as he 

 has, that orange budded, except upon orange root, is not worth 

 planting. 



The Riverside Fair Committee made the following official 

 report : 



"The committee to whom was referred the subject of stock 

 upon which to bud or graft the orange, beg leave to state that 

 the four specimens submitted for their inspection showed marked 

 and distinct characteristics, although of one variety, to wit^ 

 Navel. The first tested was the Navel budded on citron stock. 

 We found the citron quality and characteristics to predominate 

 largely in this specimen, it having the citron rind, pulp, flavor 

 and membraneous divisions all unmistakably impressed. The 

 second test, the Navel on lime root, also gave^ unmistakable 

 evidence of the power of the stock to impress itself strongly 

 upon the orange bud, in point of modifying the orange quality, 

 giving a well-defined, sub-acid flavor, but not to the degree of 

 modification in this respect, or in respect to the physical ap- 

 pearance of rind, size, pulp or membraneous walls, as that upon 

 the citron, which was larger in size and much coarser. The 

 third was a sample from a bud on China lemon root. This, we 

 have to say, approximates more nearly in all its characteristics 

 to that upon the citron root than to that upon the lime, forcing 

 us to the decision that there cannot be any doubt that the fruit 

 grown from an orange bud inserted upon citron, China lemon 

 or lime roots, unmistakably takes on the acid flavor of the nat- 

 ural fruit of the parent stock, to the great detriment of the well- 

 defined orange quality. But while the orange quality is thus 

 sacrificed, the size of the fruit upon these stocks is largely in- 

 creased," 



