40 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Experiences of this nature make it 
seem probable that the Tangelos will be 
found to be the orange of the future. It 
should be said that they are much more 
like a good sweet orange than anything 
else but are distinctly different in having 
more zest and sprightliness. Very few 
people, seeing a good tangelo for the first 
time, would guess correctly its parentage. 
In view of the great promise of this hy¬ 
brid a large number of crosses have been 
made between all available types of kid 
glove oranges and the best of our grape¬ 
fruits. Hybrids are also being made with 
the Chinese grapefruit which, although it 
is thick-skinned and less handsome than 
our own, has in the opinion of some per¬ 
sons a distinctly better flavor. 
Certain comparatively unknown small 
hardy oranges of the Satsuma (kid 
glove) type from Japan are also being 
used in these crosses, since it has been 
found that small-fruited parents do not 
necessarily make small-fruited hybrids. 
This Tangelo breeding is, perhaps, the 
most promising field of all from the 
standpoint of the Florida orange grower. 
BREEDING GRAPEFRUITS. 
The grapefruit is perhaps the greatest 
of the Florida fruits, but as everybody 
knows it has by no means reached the 
high state of perfection attained by the 
orange. Most varieties are very seedy, 
and even if not, have some drawback or 
other. There is every reason to believe 
that radical improvements will be made 
in the grapefruit when once its breeding 
is taken up in a systematic manner. 
Mr. David G. Fairchild of the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, has given 
much attention to the securing of new 
types of grapefruit from all parts of the 
Old World, particularly from China, 
Siam and India. Many of these varie¬ 
ties are now fruiting, and although most 
of them are distinctly inferior to our 
own grapefruit, some possess certain de¬ 
sirable qualities. It is believed that the 
hybridizing of these with our own grape¬ 
fruit will be likely to yield extremely val¬ 
uable new varieties. At the same time 
crosses are being made with the trifoliata 
in the hope of securing second generation 
trifoliata -grapefruit crosses resembling 
the grapefruit in general characters but 
partaking somewhat of the hardiness of 
the trifoliata. Such hybrids would very 
likely be less seedy than the fullblood 
grapefruit. 
TESTING NEW STOCKS FOR CITRUS FRUITS. 
A botanical survey has been made of 
the relatives of the Genus Citrus . Some 
80 species of plants, belonging to 19 dif¬ 
ferent genera, may be considered as close 
relatives of our common citrus fruits. 
These for the most part are closely 
enough related so that they can be grafted 
on each other, while many of them are so 
closely related that it will be possible to 
hybridize them with each other and with 
our ordinary citrus fruits. 
Some of these are so unlike the orange 
that hybrids would not be of any value 
for their fruits even if they could be 
crossed successfully. Some, however, 
are very vigorous growing trees and have 
been found (at least in the greenhouse 
here) to be the best stocks upon which 
to graft our common citrus fruits. 
Inasmuch as the orange blight is now 
strongly suspected to be a root disease, it 
