CALIFORNIA CITRUS CULTURE. 19 
admit of cultivating by horse without injury, and fifteen inches apart 
in the rows. This gives ample room for digging and balling. The 
plants are easily loosened in the seed bed by the use of a long spade, 
and should be quickly set, as the roots must not be permitted to become 
dry. Only robust plants should be transplanted to the nursery. As 
Mr. R. M. Teague says, ‘‘the best are none too good.’’ Some advise 
keeping puny plants for two years in the seed beds. It were better to 
discard them entirely. To take up the seed bed plants, a four or five 
tined potato fork is excellent. It will not cut the roots as will a spade. 
If the weather is hot it is well to place shade boards above the young 
plants. The nursery should be carefully watered and cultivated for 
two years, when the nursery trees should be ready for budding. This 
insures larger and stronger trees, and the buds can be set six inches 
above the ground. Budding is possible whenever the bark slips easily, 
and may be done in March and April. Summer budding is not uncom- 
mon, though the best time to set the buds is in September and October. 
The buds will start as soon as the sap begins to flow; will become strong 
before fall and will resist the cold of winter. Here, avain, it is well to 
select only the best of the young trees. The bud union is the weak 
place in a citrus tree, and should be well above the reach of irrigating 
water as a preventive of gum disease. 
SELECTING BUDS. 
The selection of the buds is, I think, the most important step in the 
whole range of citrus culture, and is reason enough for one to grow 
his own trees, at least from the time they are set in the nursery. Only 
buds from tested trees, whose performance has been most excellent in 
both quality and quantity for a number of years, should ever be 
accepted. This gives us pedigreed stock. In this way we hope to double 
our output and profit. We must remember what selection has done for 
corn in Illinois and Iowa. (See article on breeding citrus trees, by 
A. D. Shamel, The Monthly Bulletin, California State Commission of 
Horticulture, Vol. I, No. 9, August, 1912.) 
Mr. R. M. Teague uses only selected buds. He allows his patrons to 
furnish their own buds if they so prefer, though this privilege is rarely 
accepted. The past season only two persons accepted the offer, though 
he sold over two hundred thousand trees. Only plump, vigorous buds 
should be used. The method of inserting the bud is explained by 
Figs. 8 and 9, where is shown the T-shaped cut, the pecling of the bark 
and the cutting and insertion of the bud. The tying by budding twine 
or waxed strip of cloth is well shown. Some of the twigs with folhage are 
left on the young plants to promote vigor (Fig. 10), though not many, 
