February, 1915 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



27 



A home made scaffold and barrel spray pump in the orchard of W. 



Ont. 



L. Hamilton, Colliiifrwood. 



not always in running order was not due 

 to our inexperience. The trajectory type 

 of pump works more slowly, only de- 

 livering about twelve gallons per min- 

 ute. It is, however, more satisfactory. 

 The first spraying cost us from twelve 



to fifteen cents a tree and the second 

 from eight to ten cents a tree. It is 

 money well invested. However little 

 spraying you do, it will pay. The more 

 thoroughly you do it, the better it will 

 pay. 



Improvement of Fruit Through Bud Selection* 



L. B. Scott, Bureau of Plant 



IT is not many years ago that well- 

 known investigators were conducting 

 their seed corn experiments and show- 

 ing the results that could be accomplish- 

 ed by careful seed selection. That move- 

 ment, like all pioneer movements, was 

 at first ridiculed, but the investigators 

 kept on, undaunted, and now those who 

 a few years ago ridiculed the idea of care- 

 ful seed selection are among its most 

 enthusiastic advocates. 



In the field of vegetatively propagated 

 plants, marked improvements in yields 

 and in improved types have been secured 

 by a careful selection of cuttings or buds. 

 Dr. B. T. Galloway, now Dean of the 

 College of Agriculture at Cornell, but 

 formerly of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and Mr. P. H. Dor- 

 sett, of the Department, have shown 

 that by a careful selection of cuttings, 

 from productive violet plants they can 

 materially increase the number of flowers 

 per plant. They have kept performance 

 records on each plant, counted the num- 

 bers of flowers, and by carefully select- 

 ing cuttings from those plants which pro- 

 duced the greatest number of flowers 

 they have secured a very productive type 

 of violet. Similar results have been ac- 

 complished with roses, carnations, pota- 

 toes, and many other vegetatively or bud 

 propagated plants. 



Why, then, when corn growers, to- 

 hacco gro wers, florists, vegetable men, 



•The results set forth in this address, which 

 was delivered during December before the annual 

 meeting of the Kansas State Horticultural 

 Society, we desire to call to the special atten- 

 tion of Canadian fruit (frowera— Editor. 



Industry, Washington, D.C. 



and many others are securing marked 

 improvements in yields by selection, 

 should fruit growers work on the as- 

 sumption that "all horticultural practices 

 are based on the precedent of centuries" 

 and that there can be no improvement of 

 varieties by careful bud selection? For- 

 tunately all fruit growers and all inves- 

 tigators have not worked on that as- 

 sumption. Within the last few years the 

 Department of Agriculture has carried 

 on a series of investigations with citrus 

 and -deciduous fruits, to see if marked 

 variations did not exist, and if by care- 

 ful bud selection, whether or not ' very 

 productive types could be secured. 



While we have published but very little 

 of our results to date in government pub- 

 lications, Prof. L. C. Corbett, in charge 

 of all the Horticultural and Pomological 

 Investigations of the Department of 

 .'Vgriculture, has given us permission to 

 give, in a general way, a summary of 

 our results, and outline methods whereby 

 orchardists can study their individual 

 tree differences and secure .their own 

 records. 



The first investigations were commenc- 

 ed with Washington Navel oranges, near 

 Riverside, California. The writer became 

 associated with this work in June, 191 1. 

 In July, 1913, our staff was augmented 

 by Mr. C. S. Pomeroy. In addition to 

 the Department of Horticulture, Michi- 

 gan Agricultural College, Prof. A. V. 

 .Stubenrauch, head of the Division of 

 Pomology, University of California, and 

 a number of prominent fruit growers and 



nurserymen, both citrus and deciduous, 

 in various parts of the country. 



The principles we have found under- 

 lying this study are just as applicable to 

 deciduous as to citrus conditions. After 

 <-onsidering the citrus investigations we 

 will take up our deciduous work, and 

 lastly the methods whereby a fruit 

 grower may find out for himself just 

 what his individual trees are doing. 



OITBUS INVESTIGATIONS 



We have, roughly speaking, under ob- 

 servation 1,000 Washington Navel trees, 

 200 Valencia orange trees, 400 Eureka 

 lemons, 200 Lisbon lemons, and 100 

 -Marsh seedless grapefruit trees. 



Our work naturally divides itself into 

 three parts : 



First, A study of the differences as 

 they occur among individual trees under 

 the same conditions. This includes a 

 difference in type and a difference in pro- 

 duction within each type. 



Second, Can these differences be pro- 

 pagated ? 



Third, Will these differences be con- 

 sistent from year to year in the budded 

 trees? 



Let us take up the first part of our 

 work. Formerly, a Washington Navel 

 was thought to be a Washington Navel, 

 a Baldwin apple a Baldwin apple. We 

 have found in the case of the Washing'- 

 ton Navel that instead of one type there 

 are eleven distinct types, and these types 

 are as distinct from each other as the 

 white race is from the black. These 

 types occur as tree sports, limb sports, 

 and individual fruit sports. So far, 

 eleven types of Valencias, five of Eureka 

 lemons, five of Lisbon lemons, and five 

 of Marsh seedless grapefruit have been 

 found. 



You are not citrus growers and not 

 especially interested in citrus crops, so 

 we will not tire you by a description of 

 each one of these types. We do not, 

 however, want to contrast for you two 

 of the prominent Eureka lemon types. 

 This will show better than any attempt 

 ed definition of ours just what we mean 

 by types. 



First, take the standard open Eureka 

 lemon type of tree, any time you look 

 at that tree you can see fruit in all sizes 

 from blossoms up to fruits 'ready to 

 pick. That is just the condition you 

 wish to have in a lemon tree, fruit com- 

 ing on during each month in the year. 

 A six-year-old tree of this type will bear 

 from five to six packed boxes of fruit 

 scattered throughout the year. The 

 lemons from this type of tree grade as 

 high as ninety-five per cent, or higher 

 first-grade or fancy fruit. 



Now, right by the side of this tree is 

 a dense, rank, growing, unproductive 

 "shade tree" type of Eureka lemon. All 

 the fruit comes at one time in the fall. 



