LUTHER BURBANK 



their appearance. But there is still opportunity 

 for improvement through further selection. 

 Cultivation of the Orange 



The orange is budded or grafted on roots of 

 its own species or on those of the lemon or the 

 shaddock, better known as the grapefruit. 



The process of budding is altogether similar to 

 the budding of other trees and it presents no diffi- 

 culties. Stocks may be grown from seed but, as 

 already noted, seedlings cannot be depended upon 

 to reproduce the parent forms, and all the best 

 varieties of orange are propagated by grafting. 



The chief peculiarity of orange culture is that 

 it is necessary to grow the fruit on irrigated soil. 



Water is, of course, essential to all plant life, 

 but a tree like the orange, with heavy evergreen 

 foliage, makes exceptional demands, and it is 

 imperative, if the large juicy fruit is to be brought 

 to perfection, that these demands shall be ade- 

 quately met. 



It was the recognition of this fact by the old 

 Moors more than a thousand years ago that made 

 Valencia in Spain, thanks to the Moorish system of 

 irrigation, the heart and center of the orange in- 

 dustry of the world. The irrigation system estab- 

 lished by the Moors is still in successful operation, 

 and Valencia remains the largest single shipping 

 port for oranges anywhere in the world. 



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