BUD- VARIATION" -IN THE WASHINGTON" NAVEL ORANGE. 139 



fruit, as compared with only 53 per cent of the most desirable sizes 

 and 68 per cent of first-grade fruit produced by the low-yielding trees. 

 The production of variable fruits by trees of some of the important 

 strains is shown graphically in figure 14. The low production of 

 these inferior fruits by trees of the Washington strain, amounting to 

 0.66 per cent, as compared with the large production of such fruits 

 borne by the Thomson, Golden Nugget, Sporting Thomson, Sporting 

 Washington, and Wrinkled Australian strains, shows the superior 

 quality of the Washington strain in this respect. The comparative 

 freedom from variable fruits of many trees of the Washington strain 

 and other characteristics of these trees indicate the possibility of 

 controlling the amount of bud variability in commercial orchards by 

 bud selection based on performance records. In counting the vari- 



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Fig. 14.— Diagram showing the average percentage of variable fruits found on the trees of the different 

 strains of the Washington Navel orange in the investigational performance-record plats during a 4-year 

 period, 1912 to 1915, inclusive. The proportions are based on the total number of fruits produced. 



able fruits on a tree, only those showing some marked variation 

 from the general type of the fruits produced by that tree have been 

 recorded; for instance, in the case of trees of the Yellow strain, only 

 those fruits showing some marked variation from the Yellow strain 

 have been listed as variable fruits. On the Sporting Washington 

 and Thomson trees all fruits other than those typical of the Wash- 

 ington or Thomson strains have been listed as variable fruits. In 

 trees of the Wrinkled Australian strain the fruits do not all show the 

 characteristic coarse or wrinkled appearance, so that on these trees 

 all fruits other than those of the Washington strain have been counted 

 as variable fruits. 



In figure 15 is shown the average weight per fruit of the total com- 

 mercial crops of all the trees of the different strains in the performance- 

 record plats. Aside from the factor of size, the amount of juice and 



