90 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



current year are forced to mature buds very early. These buds 

 art put into seedling stocks as early in the season as possible. After 

 budding, the top of the stock is girdled with knife or cord, or partly 

 cut away, and growth is forced on the bud so as to give a small 

 tree at the end of the first summer. This method of propagation is 

 growing in popularity in this State, especially in the foot-hill dis- 

 tricts, where small trees are preferred for transplanting. 



Dormant Buds. Trees are sold in dormant bud when they are 

 lifted from the nursery and sent out before any growth has started 

 on the inserted bud. The bud should be seen to be the color of 

 healthy bark. Such trees should only be used when yearlings are 

 not to be had and gain in time is very important. Care must be 

 constantly taken that growth starts from the right bud, and that it 

 be protected from breaking off by wind or animals. A considerable 

 percentage of loss is usual and extra dormant buds should be 

 planted in nursery row to fill vacancies. 



Yearling Trees. These are trees which have made one season's 

 growth from the bud or graft. Two-year-olds have made two 

 seasons' growth, and so on. The proper way to count the life of 

 a tree is from the starting of growth in the bud or graft, for this 

 point is really the birth of the tree. 



WORKING OVER OLD TREES 



Another operation which may be properly considered as a 

 branch of propagation is the working over of old trees. There is 

 much of this being done every year in this State. The old seedling 

 fruits in the older settled parts of the State are being made to .bear 

 improved varieties ; trees of varieties illy adapted to prevailing con- 

 ditions are changed into strong growing and productive sorts ; trees 

 are changed from one fruit to another, when affinity permits. This 

 will be mentioned in the discussion of the different fruits. Still 

 another reason for working over is to secure more valuable and 

 marketable varieties. Sometimes a mixed orchard is made to bear 

 a straight line of one sort which is in demand, or when the grower 

 finds he has too many trees of a single kind, which give him more 

 fruit than he can conveniently handle when it all ripens at one time, 

 he works in other varieties so as to get a succession of varieties 

 adapted to his purpose, and thus secures a longer working season 

 in which to dispose of them. This is especially the case in large 

 orchards of apricots, peaches, and plums, when the grower depends 

 upon drying his crop. Information concerning the successive ripen- 

 ing of varieties can be gained from the special chapters on the 

 different fruits. For all of these reasons, and others which need not 

 be enumerated, the work of the propagator is continually going on 



