356 Budding the Orange. 
A framework covered with cypress brush is often used, the 
whole being cleared away in the spring, to allow of summer cul- 
tivation. Cultivation of trees in nursery is about the same as 
with deciduous fruit trees. The horse should be used, and the 
surface kept perfectly pulverized. The cultivator should follow 
irrigation as soon as the soil will-admit of it. Frequency of ir- 
rigation of nursery depends, of course, upon local conditions. 
Some give two or three irrigations, by running the water in 
a little trench alongside the rows, at intervals of two weeks, for 
a time after planting, and then irrigate once a month during the 
summer. It is important that irrigation should not be continued 
too late into the fall, because the young tree should harden its 
wood before cold weather. Nor is it desirable that the growth 
be too rapid. A good growth of sound wood 1s better than 
extra size. 
Length of Time in Nursery—Seedlings are usually budded 
after being one or two years in the nursery, or at two to three 
years from the planting of the seed. At a convenient time in 
the winter the lower shoots and thorns are removed from the 
seedlings, so as to leave a clear stem of about six inches, for the 
convenience of the budder. 
BUDDING THE ORANGE. 
The orange root is the best foundation for an orange tree, 
and the seed of the seedling sweet orange is the main reliance. 
The seedling of the Florida sour orange has been used to some 
extent to escape gum disease. It has not been a perfect re- 
course, though it seems to be agreed that the sour stock is much 
less likely to gum. Oranges have also been worked upon pom- 
elo seedlings, which force a strong growth, but time enough has 
not transpired to demonstrate results. Of course many lemon, 
and recently many pomelo trees, have been worked over to the 
orange, but in these cases the orange root was below the other 
wood. All lemon roots are not suitable for the orange. The 
japanese practise of dwarfing with the citrus trifoliata has never 
prevailed in this State. 
Budding is almost exclusively adopted in working in de- 
sirable varieties. The best time.to bud is about the time the 
new growth starts on the seedling in the spring, though some 
‘practise budding in midsummer and fall. Good, well-matured 
buds only should be used; those from both base and tip of the 
shoots are frequently defective. The method of budding de- 
scribed in Chapter IX is that usually employed in budding cit- 
rus trees, and the rules for loosening the ligature, etc., are sim- 
ilar. Midsummer buds are apt to have soft growth at the com- 
ing of cold weather; fall buds remain dormant until spring; 
spring buds start to grow almost immediately, and have the ben- 
