f 
BUD VARIATION IN THE LISBON LEMON. 63 
trees apparently as hardy as those of the Lisbon strain. For certain 
conditions, however, it seems probable that the Open strain is the 
most valuable one for commercial lemon production. The trees of 
the Open strain have fewer and smaller thorns and the fruits are 
more easily picked than those of the Lisbon strain. 
THE UNINTENTIONAL PROPAGATION OF UNDESIRABLE STRAINS. 
In the earlier stages of the lemon industry in California propagators 
considered fruit characteristics as a definite measure of the value of 
parent trees for bud 
wood. Later, the 
importance of the 
fruits in the selec- 
tion of parent trees 
as sources of bud 
wood was entirely 
lost sight of. Bud 
wood was taken 
wherever it could be 
secured with a min- 
imum of time, labor, 
and expense. As a 
result, it was fre- 
quently procured 
from vigorous-grow- 
ing trees of vegeta- 
tive strains, which 
often are least pro- 
ductive and _ least 
desirable. Some 
propagators, believ- 
ing that the size of 
the tree was corre- 
lated with produc- 
tion, when cutting 
bud wood secured 
it from the largest 
t : i hard Fig. 12.—Fruit-bearing lemon bud wood with typical fruits attached 
rees 1m the orchard. to one st.sk. The bud sticks, after being cut and trimmed, should 
Nurserymen of ten be packed in slightly moistened sphagnum moss and held in a cool 
room until needed for use. 
cut bud wood from 
trees in the nursery rows or from sucker growth on fruiting trees. 
The result of these various practices was the unintentional propa- 
gation of many worthless strains. 
In the course of these investigations the method of using fruit- 
bearing bud wood, as shown in figure 12, has been evolved. The 
use of fruit-bearg bud wood with the fruits attached has largely 
