BUD VARIATION IX THE LISBON LEMON. 69 



As a result of the citrus-fruit improvement investigations, in May, 

 1917, the California Fruit Growers' Exchange, a cooperative organi- 

 zation of about 8,000 citrus growers, hiaugurated a bud-supply de- 

 partment, which was established as a public service, its purpose being 

 to furnish bud wood from performance-record trees of all the im- 

 portant California citrus varieties to growers and nurserymen. As 

 this department was established for the good of the whole citrus 

 mdustry its privileges are not restricted to members of the exchange, 

 but buds are distributed at cost to all who apply for theni. Buds 

 are cut only from trees on which performance records have been 

 obtained for several years. These trees are located in orchards 

 which are well-known producers of superior crops of valuable fruits. 

 The pm'chaser,. if he cares to do so, has the opportunity of visiting 

 the individual parent trees in the orchards from which the buds 

 come, and he can inspect the records and examine the fruits of these 

 trees. Only fruit-bearing bud wood is used, and the fruits from the 

 bud sticks are returned to the owner of the trees. Each lot of 

 bud sticks is kept separate and is labeled with the number of the 

 parent tree or with a key number. The grower or nurseryman re- 

 ceiving the buds therefore can keep the progeny of each parent tree 

 separate. Men who have been thoroughly trained and have an inti- 

 mate knowledge of the important variations in the standard citrus 

 varieties are exclusively employed for this work. In this way the in- 

 dustry is distributing wood of the best lemon strains only, and it is rea- 

 sonable to expect that the young orchards which are planted with trees 

 propagated from this type of bud wood, and older orchards which 

 are top-worked, will eventually bear the best type and quality of 



fruit. 



SUMMARY. 



The important commercial lemon varieties now grown in Califor- 

 nia are the Eureka and Lisbon. The Lisbon variety was introduced 

 from Australia about 1874, and later in 1875, with perhaps less- 

 important later mtroductions. 



Several important strains of these varieties have resulted through 

 the unmtentional propagation of bud variations. Li this bulletin 

 only the variations within the Lisbon variety are discussed. De- 

 scriptions of variations in the Eureka variety will be found in United 

 States Department of Agriculture Bulletin No, 813. 



Bud variations are of frequent occurrence in some of the trees of 

 the Lisbon variety. Some of the strams which have developed from 

 them are mferior in quality and cpantity of fruit and mature the 

 fruits at seasons when there is no great market demand for them. 

 These strains occur as variations m the habit of tree gi'owth, in 

 characteristics of the foliage and blossom, and in the color, shape, 

 texture, juiciness, and other characteristics of the fruit. 



