BUD VARIATION IX THE WASHINGTON NAVEL OBANGE. 143 



far as such trees have fruited, the results have confirmed in every 

 respect those secured by top-working bearing trees. Enough evi- 

 dence has been secured in these investigations to warrant the state- 

 ment that in all probability all the strains of the Washington Xavel 

 orange can be isolated through bud selection. The isolation of the 

 strains described in this bulletin. can be effected either through the 

 selection of bud wood from typical trees in established orchards or 

 from limb variations occurring in bearing trees of the Washington 

 or other strains. In all cases only fruit-bearing 

 bud wood should be used, and one or more 

 typical fruits of the strain desired should be 

 cut off with each bud stick as an indication or 

 label of the characteristics of the bud wood. 

 Figure 16 shows a bud stick of fruit-bearing 

 wood with a typical fruit of the Washington 

 strain attached. The fruits on the bud stick 

 are an indication of the inherent characteristic 

 of the buds from such bud wood and show 

 the probable character of fruit that will be 

 produced by those buds. 



The small size of the fruit-bearing bud wood, 

 particularly that growth immediately back of 

 the orange, in comparison with sucker wood 

 growth, has been urged as an objection to its 

 use, particularly if it is necessary to hold the 

 bud wood in storage for some time. These 

 investigations have proved that under proper 

 conditions of storage, viz, sterilized and prop- 

 erly moistened moss and a cool temperature, 

 fruit-bearing bud wood keeps i,ts vitality as 

 well as any other kind of wood. Experience 

 has shown that the use of small bud sticks 

 is as successful in securing a stand of living 

 buds and is as practicable as the use of the FlG - 16 - _An orange bud stick of 



*- fruit-bearing wood with a 



larger Ones. Washington strain fruit at- 



The discovery of the practicability and taehed " 

 desirability of the use of fruit-bearing bud wood for propagation 

 purposes came about through a study of methods for isolating the 

 navel-orange strains. Experiments with fruit-bearing bud wood 

 proved that the buds from such wood grew equally well and in 

 most cases better than the buds cut from nonfruit-b earing wood. 

 The growth of the young trees from buds taken from fruit-bearing 

 wood has been equally good in all cases and better in most instances 

 than that of trees propagated from sucker or nonfruit-bearing wood. 



