BUD VARIATION IN THE EUREKA LEMON. 



79 



very detrimental to the reputation of the Cahfornia lemon industry, 

 from the fact that the fruits from the trees of .these strains are of 

 inferior quality and when placed on the market are likely to be the 

 cause of serious disappointment to the consumers. The Eureka 

 strain is the only strain in this variety which is of commercial value. 



THE UNINTENTIONAL PROPAGATION OF UNDESIRABLE STRAINS. 



The originators and early propagators of lemon varieties in Cali- 

 fornia have usually used the fruit characteristics as a measure of the 

 comparative value of the parent trees for propagation. Later, the men 

 who secured commer- 

 cial bud wood from 

 orchards of the estab- 

 lished varieties lost 

 sight of the impor- 

 tance of the fruits in 

 theselection of parent 

 trees as sources of bud 

 wood. In most cases 

 they secured bud 

 wood from the trees 

 where it was easiest to 

 get it — that is, from 

 vigorous-growing 

 trees of the vegeta- 

 tive strains. These 

 strains are usually the 

 least productive and 

 the least desirable. 

 Other propagators as- 

 sumed that the size of 

 the tree was correlat- 

 ed with production; 

 therefore they se- 

 cured their bud 

 wood from the 

 largest trees. In 

 other cases nursery- 

 men assumed that 

 they could grow the 

 best nursery stock — 

 that is, the largest 

 nursery trees, in a given time from sucker bud wood secured from 

 the largest parent trees. The result of these various practices has 

 been the unintentional propagation of poor fruiting strains. It is 

 believed that the most frequent and important cause of the prop aga- 



FiG. IS.— Friiit-beariiig bud wood on a lemon tree of the Eureka 

 strain, vrith typical fruits attached. The leaves have been removed 

 from one bud stick in order to show the method of preparing the 

 bud sticks for use. 



