BUD VARIATION IN THE LISBON LEMON. Jt 
The trees of the Sporting strain vary in size, habit of growth, and 
productiveness according to the character of the variations borne by 
them. 
LESSONS TAUGHT BY THESE INVESTIGATIONS. 
As in the case of the other lemon variety, the performance-record 
studies of the Lisbon trees have been particularly interesting, for the 
reason that the frequent pickings have made possible the almost con- 
tinuous systematic observation of individual-tree behavior through- 
out the entire year. A very large number of buds taken from supe- 
rior trees of both the Lisbon and Open strains in the performance-_ 
record plats have been furnished to propagators. These buds from 
individual parent trees have been kept separate, so that each progeny 
can be traced back at any time from the orchard planting to the 
parent trees. In addition to these buds which have been cut from the 
best of performance-record trees, buds have also been taken from the . 
poorest trees, in order to compare under orchard conditions the be- 
havior of the progenies of the most desirable with those from the 
undesirable parent trees. _ 
The early fruiting of the young trees propagated from select 
parent trees is just as marked in the Lisbon as in the Eureka variety; 
in fact, it is even more striking in the Lisbon variety, as it was for- 
merly thought that trees of the Lisbon strain were slow in coming 
into production. Experimental propagations from productive parent 
trees of this strain in the performance-record plat have shown 
that young trees of this strain come into fruiting very early. Within 
some of the strains marked variations of importance commercially 
were found, but none as striking as the variations which distinguish 
the strains themselves. These individual-tree differences within the 
strains should be taken into account by the performance-record 
keeper and the knowledge of these variations utilized in the selection 
of trees for top-working or for use as sources of bud wood. 
There is a marked correlation between the quantity and quality of 
the fruits produced by the individual trees of the different strains in 
the Lisbon variety. A similar correlation was found in the studies 
of the individual-tree production of the various strains of the Eureka 
lemon, the Washington Navel orange, the Valencia orange, and the 
Marsh grapefruit. The trees bearing the most lemons usually pro- 
duce the best commercial fruits. Usually the most productive trees 
show the fewest marked variations in fruits from the type of the 
strain to which they belong. This condition makes the securing of 
production records especially valuable, in that it enables the grower 
to secure a reliable conception of the fruits of the individual trees. 
