BUD VARIATION IN THE LISBON LEMON. 69 
As a result of the citrus-fruit improvement investigations, in May, 
1917, the California Fruit Growers’ Exchange, a cooperative organi- 
zation of about 8,000 citrus growers, inaugurated a bud-supply de- 
partment, which was established as a public service, its purpose being - 
to furnish bud wood from performance-record trees of all the 1m- 
portant California citrus varieties to growers and nurserymen. As 
this department was established for the good of the whole citrus 
industry its privileges are not restricted to members of the exchange, 
but buds are distributed at cost to all who apply for them. Buds 
are cut only from trees on which performance records have been 
obtained for several years. These trees are located in orchards 
which are well-known producers of superior crops of valuable fruits. 
The purchaser, if he cares to do so, has the opportunity of visiting 
the individual parent trees in the orchards from which the buds 
come, and he can inspect the records and examine the fruits of these 
trees. Only fruit-bearmg bud’ wood is used, and the fruits from the 
_bud sticks are returned to the owner of the trees. Each lot of 
bud sticks is kept separate and is labeled with the number of the 
parent tree or with a key number. The grower or nurseryman re- 
ceiving the buds therefore can keep the progeny of each parent tree 
separate. Men who have been thoroughly tramed and have an inti- 
mate knowledge of the important variations in the standard citrus 
varieties are exclusively employed for thiswork. In this way the in- 
dustry is distributing wood of the best lemon strains only, and it is rea- 
sonable to expect that the young orchards which are planted with trees 
propagated from this type of bud wood, and older orchards which 
are top-worked, will eventually bear the best type and quality of 
fruit. 
SUMMARY. 
The important commercial lemon varieties now grown in Califor- 
nia are the Eureka and Lisbon. The Lisbon variety was introduced 
from Australia about 1874, and later in 1875, with perhaps less- 
important later introductions. 
Several important strains of these varieties have resulted through 
the unintentional propagation of bud variations. In this bulletin 
only the variations within the Lisbon variety are discussed. De- 
scriptions of variations in the Eureka variety will be found in United 
States Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 813. 
Bud variations are of frequent occurrence in some of the trees of 
the Lisbon variety. Some of the strains which have developed from 
them are inferior in quality and quantity of fruit and mature the 
fruits at seasons when there is no great market demand for them. 
These strains occur as variations in the habit of tree growth, in 
characteristics of the foliage and blossom, and in the color, shape, 
texture, juiciness, and other characteristics of the fruit. 
