BUD VARIATION" IN THE WASHINGTON NAVEL ORANGE. 143 
far as such trees have fruited, the results have confirmed in every 
respect those secured by top-working bearing trees. Enough evi- 
dence has been secured in these investigations to warrant the state- 
ment that in all probability all the strains of the Washington Navel 
orange can be isolated through bud selection. The isolation of the 
strains described in this bulletin can be effected either through the 
selection of bud wood from typical trees in established orchards or 
from limb variations occurring in bearing trees of the Washington 
or other strains. In all cases only fruit-bearing p 
bud wood should be used, and one or more 
typical fruits of the strain desired should be 
cut off with each bud stick as an indication or 
label of the characteristics of the bud wood. 
Figure 16 shows a bud stick of fruit-bearing 
wood with a typical fruit of the Washington 
strain attached. The fruits on the bud stick 
are an indication of the inherent characteristic 
of the buds from such bud wood and show 
the probable character of fruit that will be 
produced by those buds. 
The small size of the fruit-bearing bud wood, 
particularly that growth immediately back of 
the orange, in comparison with sucker wood 
growth, has been urged as an objection to its 
use, particularly if it is necessary to hold the 
bud wood in storage for some time. These 
investigations have proved that under proper 
conditions of storage, viz, sterilized and prop- 
erly moistened moss and a cool temperature, 
fruit-bearing bud wood keeps its vitality as 
well as any other kind of wood. Experience 
has shown that the use of small bud sticks 
is as successful in securing a stand of living 
buds and is as practicable as the use of the fig. ie -An orange bud stick of 
r fruit-bearmg wood with a 
larger ones. 
The discovery of the practicability and 
desirability of the use of fruit-bearing bud wood for propagation 
purposes came about through a study of methods for isolating the 
navel-orange strains. Experiments with fruit-bearing bud wood 
proved that the buds from such wood grew equally well and in 
most cases better than the buds cut from nonfruit-b earing wood. 
The growth of the young trees from buds taken from fruit-bearing 
wood has been equally good in all cases and better in most instances 
than that of trees propagated from sucker or nonfruit-bearing wood. 
Washington strain fruit at- 
tached. 
