BUD VARIATION IN THE LISBON LEMON. 



63 



trees apparently as hardy as those of the Lisbon strain. For certain 

 conditions, however, it seems probable that the Open strain is the 

 most valuable one for commercial lemon production. The trees of 

 the Open strain have fewer and smaller thorns and the fruits are 

 more easily picked than those of the Lisbon strain. 



THE UNINTENTIONAL PROPAGATION OF UNDESIRABLE STRAINS. 



In the earlier stages of the lemon industry in California propagators 

 considered fruit characteristics as a definite measure of the value of 

 parent trees for bud 

 wood. Later, the 

 importance of the 

 fruits in the selec- 

 tion of parent trees 

 as sources of bud 

 wood was entirely 

 lost sight of. Bud 

 wood was taken 

 wherever it could be 

 secured with a min- 

 imum of time, labor, 

 and expense. As a 

 result, it was fre- 

 quently procured 

 from vigorous-grow- 

 ing trees of vegeta- 

 tive strains, which 

 often are least pro- 

 ductive and least 

 desirable. Some 

 propagators, believ- 

 ing that the size of 

 the tree was corre- 

 lated with produc- 

 tion, when cutting 

 bud wood secured 

 it from the largest 

 trees in the orchard. 

 Nurserymen often 

 cut bud wood from 

 trees in the nursery rows or from sucker growth on fruiting trees. 

 The result of these various practices was the unintentional propa- 

 gation of many worthless strains. 



In the course of these investigations the method of using fruit- 

 bearing bud wood, as shown in figure 12, has been evolved. The 

 use of fruit-bearmg bud wood with the fruits attached has largely 



Fig. 12.— Fruit-bearing lemon bud wood with typical fruits attached 

 to one St. jk. The bnd sticks, after being cut and trimmed, should 

 be packed in slightly moistened sphagnum moss and held in a cool 

 room until needed for use. 



