108 BULLETIN 624, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



crops in the odd years. This group of trees may not be unprofitable 

 to the grower, but they are not as desirable as those with a regular 

 bearing habit. 



The variation in the crop production of the individual trees of the 

 Valencia strain in the performance-record plat is shown graphically 

 in figure 1. The average annual crops of these 75 trees, which are 

 planted in a single orchard block, vary from 57+ pounds to 193f 

 pounds, but 64 of them, or 85 per cent of the total number, averaged 

 between 100 and 160 pounds annually. This diagram also shows the 

 variations in the. amount of Orchard, Standard, and Cull grade fruit 

 borne by trees producing practically the same total crops. 



Section A of Table IV shows the average annual crop of all the 

 Valencia orange trees occurring in the investigational performance- 

 record plat in groups of strains and of select trees within some of these 



% 0/PCH4/Z9 GQ4DS % SZZ/UQ4/PD G/P/^OS % COLL G&40f 



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Tig. 2.— Diagram showing the percentages of fruit of the different commercial grades in the average 

 annual production of the trees of the various strains found in the investigational performauce-record 

 plat of Valencia oranges for the 4-year period, 1912 to 1915, inclusive. The strains are listed in the order 

 of their relative production by weight of fruit of the Orchard grade. 



strains. The groups are arranged according to the weight of the 

 average annual crop of each individual tree. The presence of Barren- 

 strain trees will probably be a surprise to many Valencia growers. 

 Trees of this strain and other low-producing strains when noticed in 

 the orchards have usually been considered to be biennial bearers, in 

 their off year. Records, such as those here reported, show that in 

 some instances, at least, this theory is baseless. Here are shown the 

 records of two trees of the Barren strain which have borne practically 

 uniform crops for the past four years, with an average yearly crop of 6 

 pounds per tree, only 3.7 pounds being commercial fruit suitable for 

 the market. It will be seen that nearly all the other sporting strains 

 produced much less than is ordinarily expected from the average 

 orchard tree and all of them averaged less than was produced by the 

 trees of the A'alencia strain. 



