CHAPTER \L 



BUDDED TREES OR SEEDLINGS? 



The former, most emphatically. 



Time was, and that only a few years ago too, when the ma- 

 jority of growers favored the seedling tree, because it was said 

 to grow larger, fruit more prolifically, and bear longer than the 

 budded tree. 



But the tide of opinion has decidedly veered around now-a- 

 days, as a greater degree of experience is gained and fuller 

 scientific investigation brought to bear on the mooted question. 



Thomas Meehan, editor of the Gardners Monthly and 

 Horticulturist, of Philadelphia, who is one of the recognized 

 authorities on horticultural matters in the United States, tells 

 us most decidedly, that budding orange trees does not dwarf 

 them in the least, unless a dwarf scion is used, and this opinion, 

 coming from such a source, should carry conviction with it, even 

 if there were no other available testimony, of which, however, 

 there is plenty. It is impossible to understand the foundation 

 upon which the theory has been based, that by budding we sac- 

 rifice size of tree and quality of fruit, for certainly experience 

 does not demonstrate either of these charges. In the first place 

 budding orange trees is comparatively a new thing with us all, 

 while seedling trees date back for many years. Where a fair 

 comparison between the trees is attainable, it is proved that the 

 budded trees are fully as large as the seedlings of the same age. 



There is one thing that has probably misled many superfi- 

 cial observers in this connection, and that is, that trees that bear 

 early and continuously, as budded trees do bear, do not increase 

 so rapidly in wood, year for year, as the tree's whole energy is 

 devoted to making wood, but until the budded tree has become 

 as large as a seedling bearing tree, and it will be seen that the 

 after growth of the budded tree surpasses that of the seedling. 



Captain Burnham, of Indian River, tells us that his trees 



are nearlv all budded, except a few seedlings scattered here and 

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