BUDDED TREES AND SEEDLINGS. 



57 



asserted effect of the lime and lemon on the orange as fanciful 

 and not sustained by fact. 



The grape fruit germinates as readily from the seed as the 

 sour orange and grows off as vigorously from the very first. It 

 is as hardy as the sweet orange, is less subject to disease, and 

 makes an excellent stock for the latter. 



In budding one's own nursery-raised seedlings, no matter 

 what the stock may be, it is best to bud them in the nursery 

 when the stock is one year old ; then, as soon as the bud shows 

 it has taken, take up the trees careflilly and set them out in the 

 grove, where they are to remain, for when you have your trees 

 at hand it is better to get them out as young as possible while 

 the roots are so small that it is easy to take them up without 

 losing any, and thereby giving the tree a set-back. 



Do not cut back entirely until the transplanted tree has had 

 time to grow. If all the trees in the nursery are not needed for 

 budding at the same time, it is a good plan to bud alternate trees. 



Those that remain will have a space of two feet in which to 

 grow another year, or the space thus left vacant may be filled in 

 again with fresh stock from the seed bed. 



In buying from the nurseries, and this we would advise all 

 to do who have not their own nursery, it is best to purchase 

 stock three years old and one year bud. These trees are of a size 

 that renders them easy to handle and set out and they grow off 

 finely, being neither too old to lose many rootlets in the process 

 of transfer, nor too young to bear a temporary cessation of growth. 



Trees such as these, of the best varieties grown, are to be 

 had at fifty dollars per hundred ; trees of two years' bud, with 

 stock of four or five years' growth, at seventy-five dollars, 

 and a still larger size at one dollar each. When the sweet seed- 

 ling is purchased for setting out in a grove, it should be not 

 under three nor over five years for the best result to be obtained. 



Setting them out from your home nursery, it is better to put 

 them out just as soon as they are a year old, putting stakes to pro- 

 tect them from the plow and cultivator until they are large 

 enough to take care of themselves. This precaution is, of 

 course, necessary wdth the young budded trees as w^ell. 



