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Th 
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The Business Farmer’s Paper 
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Voi.. LXXVII. 
XFAV YORK, MARCH 2, 191S 
No. 1471 
Some Observations on Bud 
Selection 
Successful Work in California 
T TiEE IiErOHI>S.—Sevenil tlious- 
aiid acres of citrus orchai’ds 
idanted with youn.ij trees jirowii from 
buds secured from productive perform¬ 
ance record parent trees are now com¬ 
ing into full bearing in (’alifornia. The 
varieties planted inclnde the Washing¬ 
ton navel and the \'alencia oranges, 
I.ishon and Eureka lemons, and INIarsh 
grapefruit. The plantings have been 
made under divei'se conditions of soii 
and climate. I’ait of the selected buds 
fi'em which the trees were grown have 
lieen .selected by tin* wiater from i)arent 
trees in orchards where he and his 
associates have been securing indiv¬ 
idual tree I’ecords for the past eight 
years. Other selected buds, for pro- 
i)agating the trees in these orchards, 
have been s(‘cui‘('d by citi'us growers 
in their own orchards where they have 
bfHMi keeping individual tree records 
for sevei’al years. A recent survey of 
some of the orchards in which the 
tre(‘s were grown from carefully se- 
b'cti'd f)‘uit-I)earing wood buds secure<l 
from i)arent trees selected on the basis 
of their performance records has 
freshly emphasized several points that 
have b(>en lu'ought out in the investi¬ 
gation of the suh.i(x.-t of hud seh'Ction 
as appli('d to citrus fruits. A few of 
these points are as follows: 
YIELD AND DEVEI.OPlNiENT.— 
First, early production has been ob¬ 
tained. The fruit-hearing characteris¬ 
tic of the navel oi'ange tree shown in 
first cut is typical of the results secui'ed 
tlirough hud selection in these im- 
proved orchard.s. The uniformly heavy 
yields of the two young trc'es grown 
from the seh>cted buds had been corre¬ 
lated with a strong physical develop¬ 
ment, including vigorous vegetative 
growth, lai-ge truidvs and tops. Not 
only is this true, hut contraiy to the 
belief of some, the fpmlity of the fruit 
borne by these young trees has b(‘en 
superior and similar to that jn-oduced 
by the moi’e mature parent trees. 
IMPROVED STRAINS.—Second, the 
best strains of each of the varieties 
have been isolated through bud selec¬ 
tion, so that the fruits produced ar(^ 
more uniform than where ti-ees have 
been grown without systematic hud 
selection. In this way less labor and 
('ffort is laapiired to assort and pack 
the fruit for market than is the case 
with orchards made up of a niixtur(‘ of 
liA'Ci'se strains, and the consumei' is in¬ 
sured of a uniformly supc'rior product. 
ROREST OROAVTIL—Third, strong 
growing large trees have he(m secaired. 
It was thou,ght by some growcu's tluit 
the eis(‘ of the small fruit-hearing 
wood buds, from pi-olitic parents, would 
result in .small nur.sery and orchard 
fnvs. The contrary condition has 
lie(Mi the result of the u.se of such buds. 
The large fine trees in the improved 
orchards, as large or larger than coni- 
pai-a1)le trees grown from large sucker- 
wood. are living proof of this statement. 
.\o ludter trees from an.v standpoint 
have ever been produced in California 
nurseries than aho.se grown from the 
selected fruit-heaiing wood buds. 
eliminating BUCKEILS.—Eoiirth, 
le.ss pruning has been found to he nec¬ 
essary for those trees than for ord¬ 
inary citrus trees of the same age. 
^J’his condition i.< iiroliahly due to the 
A tree grown from a selected fruit-bearing wood bud, secured from a productive performance 
record parent Washington navel orange tree of the best strain. At two years of age it bore 
168 perfect oranges. This production and quality of fruit is unequalled, in the writer's 
knowledge, for the variety. It is an example of the truly wonderful results secured through 
systematic bud selection based on periormance records and intimate tree knowledge. 
A tree groum from a selected fruit-bearing wood bud secured from an unproductive Wash¬ 
ington navel orange tree of a poor strain. It produced 11 inferior fruits at two yea.rs of 
The parents of this tree and the one shown in Figure 1 are neighboring trees in the 
£ureka orchard near Riverside, Calitornia. The two young trees are growing side by side * 
on the Hosford ranch at San Dimas, California. They are comparable and tell the story of 
the importance of hud selection in the propagation of fruit trees. 
fact that the tree.'^ grown from the se¬ 
lected Imds secured from heavy-hear¬ 
ing parents have produced less sucker 
growth, or non-fruit hearing growth, 
than ordinary citrus trees. 
T'NIEORM TYRE.—Eifth. the nni- 
formit.v of the type of frnit produced 
from the performance record trees, 
even under diverse conditions, is re¬ 
markable. For example, the trees of 
the superior strain of the Marsh grape¬ 
fruit grown from selected buds are 
hearing uniformly tiattened tyiie of 
fruits, with the thin rind, the large 
quantities of .iuice and jiossessing the 
uniformly delicious grajicfruit flavor, 
on heavy and light soils, inland and near 
the .sea. and on high elevations and on 
lower levels. This condition, which is 
apparent to every observer, is itself so 
strong an argument in favor of the 
importance of hud .selection in the pro¬ 
duction of uniformly good fruits that 
if every fruit .grower in the Enited 
States could hut see it for himself the 
problem of introducing meihods of hud 
selection would he instantly .soIvihI. 
No one would ever he content to plant 
other trei's than those grown from .se¬ 
lected buds secured from iiroductive 
performance record parent tris's of the 
best strain. 
IMPORTANT RESEI/I’S.—The iire- 
sent production of the orchards planted 
to trees grown from .selected hnds se¬ 
cured from productive performance 
recoril tri'es of the best strain, is better 
than we had hoped for at this stage of 
the development of the use of im- 
ju'oved methods of propagation. For 
this rc'ason we (xiiect evini blotter re¬ 
sults a.s th(‘ knowle<lg<' of strains and 
trees accumulates. If such sup(>rior 
and important ri'sults have been pos¬ 
sible with our present limited knowl¬ 
edge how much greater results may be 
obtained with more knowledge and 
experience. M'e know one thing 
now and that is that equally im¬ 
portant results hav(' been se<'ured 
through hud selection in the citrus, as 
have been obtained in the improve¬ 
ment of corn or other crops through 
seed selection. d’he writer believes 
that the study of hud variation, indiv¬ 
idual tree records, and hud selection 
should become a part of the work ot 
every progre.ssive horticulturist. We 
have evidence that an ever increasing 
number of fruit growers, deciduous as 
well as citrus, ai'e interesting them¬ 
selves in this work. a. u. sifA.MKi.. 
The Largest White Oak 
F ig. 1.3S .shows what is said to be 
the largest tree east of the -Vlleg- 
hany Mountains, and would like to 
know if tliere is any largt'r white 
oak in the United States. In the back¬ 
ground .vou will see large forest trees; 
conqiare size of both. Thtis tree .stands 
on the Mantua Farm, :Mt. Royal, N. .7., 
owned by Jacob Nolbe. The height of 
the tree is 95 feet; girth at ground 42 
feet: circumference at 12 feet from 
ground 29 feet: spre.ad of branches 
from north to .south 1'2G feet. 
JAC015 XOI/I’E. 
R. N.-Y.—The white oak is one of 
our finest trees, and when given op- 
portunit.v for development in open 
places and suitable soil, grows very 
large, specimens four to six feet in 
diameter not being unu.sual. This is 
truly a giant, Imwever. and big enough 
to house a fair-sized picnic. 
