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It*  RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
September  *,  1923 
Fruit  Tree  Bud  Selection  in  California 
M  IS  LEAD  I XG  EXPRES  S  I(  )N— .Du  r- 
ing  a  recent  tour  of  observation  and 
study  occupying  about  three  months 
time  and  covering  the  Southern 
States  (notably  Florida),  the  At¬ 
lantic  coast  and  the  middle  eastern 
section,  I  visited  many  of  the  leading  nurserymen, 
and  so  far  as  possible  put  myself  in  touch  with 
State  and  Federal  investigators  and  research  work¬ 
ers.  My  aim  was  to  learn  all  I  could  concerning 
way  and  means  of  growing  trees  and  plants  of  better 
quality  and  larger  economic  values.  Naturally  I 
heard  a  great  deal  about  bud  selection,  although 
the  word  “selection-’  was  not  in  evidence  quite  so 
often  r.s  that  of  “pedigreed  trees.’’  And  in  the 
minds  of  many  the  latter  was  severely  criticized.  As 
applied  to  nursery  trees  it  is  certainly  deceptive.  It 
implies  offspring  from  male  and  female  parentage, 
which  in  their  main  outlines  typify  ancestral  ehar- 
Part  I. 
fruits  has  demonstrated  its  capabilities  by  enhanc¬ 
ing  quality  and  yield.  To  what  extent  is  problem¬ 
atical,  but  when  done  under  close'  observation,  and 
conditions  are  favorable,  it  certainly  has  consider¬ 
able  betterment  to  its  credit.  In  this  connection  it 
is  indeed  high  time  that  the  indiscriminate  methods 
of  cutting  buds  practiced  by  nearly  the  entire  nur¬ 
sery  trade  should  cease,  and  the  nursery  plant  in¬ 
dustry  become  the  recognized  leader  in  the  adoption 
of  methods  which  will  produce  only  the  very  best  of 
trees  in  the  matter  of  growth,  productivity  and  qual¬ 
ity  of  fruit.  Fruit  growers  should  not  be  led  astray 
by  statements  that  the  trees  offered  for  sale  will 
prove  to  be  super  trees  in  quality  and  quantity  pro¬ 
duction  ;  but  proof  should  be  honestly  presented  that 
every  effort  has  been  put  forth  to  secure  buds  from 
trees  which  possessed  the  necessary  qualifications 
to  make  them  worthy  progenitors  for  the  propaga¬ 
tion  by  bud  selection  of  more  trees  of  like  character. 
fruits?  To  expect  a  tree  grown  from  a  selected  bud 
to  give  a  good  account  of  itself  where  soil  and  cli¬ 
matic  conditions  are  unfavorable  is  hardly  reason¬ 
able;  it  is,  however,  quite  possible  and  even  probable 
that  under  more  favorable  conditions  of  soil  en¬ 
vironment  and  in  certain  localities  the  progeny  may 
even  show  an  improvement  over  the  host  tree  from 
which  the  selected  bud  was  cut.  Under  unfavor¬ 
able  conditions,  the  opposite  might  occur.  The  truth 
of  this  we  must  admit. 
AN  EXPANDING  INDUSTRY.— The  California 
fruit  industry  is  growing  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and 
under  our  favorable  soil  and  climatic  conditions  it 
will  continue  to  expand  and  dominate  commercially. 
To  this  development  there  can  be  no  backward  step, 
and  if  the  nurserymen  are  going  to  live  up  to  their 
obligations  they  must  become  leaders  in  an  endeavor 
to  greatly  improve  the  size,  quality  of  flesh  with  less 
waste  in  size  of  pit,  flavor,  shipping,  drying  and  can- 
V 
Nothing  like  originality  in  roadside  advertising.  This  is  the  ivay  a  New  Hampshire  farmer  lets  folks  know  there  are  no  live  chickens  in  the  eggs  he  offers. 
acteristics.  It  is  particularly  significant  when  ap¬ 
plied  to  the  values  in  horses  and  cattle,  in  sheep  and 
hogs.  The  selected  bud  from  a  record  performance 
tree  has  no  such  background.  It  is  a  single  unit 
which  has  no  relation  whatever  to  the  matter  of  sex, 
much  less  a  breeding  propensity.  Hence,  pedigreed 
trees  are  so  only  in  name,  even  though  certain  nur¬ 
serymen  advertise  “Quality  and  pedigreed  trees  cer¬ 
tified  to  under  affidavit.”  In  California  the  expres¬ 
sion  has  for  some  years  been  in  the  discard;  as  a 
matter  of  fact  it  never  should  have  been  tolerated. 
THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  BUD  SELECTION.— 
It  is  quite  generally  recognized  that  the  product  and 
habit  of  budded  grown  trees  will  be  somewhat  varia¬ 
ble  ;  literally  no  two  trees  are  quite  alike,  even  when 
the  buds  are  the  selected  product  of  record  per¬ 
formance  trees,  though  commercially  both  fruit  and 
tree  will  qualify  for  quality  and  uniformity.  If  se¬ 
lected  buds  show  differentiation,  what  shall  we  say 
of  those  cut  at  random  either  from  orchard  trees  or 
those  in  nursery  rows?  Are  not  the  chances  of  bet¬ 
ter  trees  immeasurably  in  favor  of  the  buds  cut  from 
robust  record  performance  trees?  While  bud  selec¬ 
tion  will  not  give  us  a  race  of  super  fruit  trees,  its 
intelligent  application  in  both  citrus  and  deciduous 
As  an  illustration,  let  me  cite  the  use  of  the  im¬ 
proved  French  prune  which  came  under  my  observa¬ 
tion  and  that  of  other  nursei'yrnen  (notably  Leonard 
Coates,  who  has  done  more  valuable  research  work 
with  the  prune  than  any  other  one  individual  in 
California)  about  10  years  ago.  Practically  all  of 
the  trees  in  the  orchard  under  consideration  had  for 
a  period  of  20  years  produced  prunes  which  ran  to 
large  sizes;  even  a  novice  wandering  through  the 
orchard  year  after  year  could  not  avoid  being  im¬ 
pressed  with  the  fact  that  the  trees  producing  these 
large-sized  prunes  repeated  the  performance  year 
after  year — a  fact  fully  authenticated  by  the  dried 
product  as  it  was  delivered  annually  to  the  packing 
house.  A  nurseryman  who  refuses  to  acknowledge 
evidence  like  this  and  continues  to  cut  his  buds  from 
trees  which  produce  the  smaller  sized  prunes  is  not 
worthy  of  his  calling.  The  fact  that  nursery  trees 
grown  from  selected  buds  cut  from  the  trees  here 
cited  when  coming  into  bearing  in  different  places 
have  maintained  the  bearing  values  and  characteris¬ 
tics  of  the  trees  from  which  the  buds  were  obtained 
fully  demonstrates  the  value  of  this  selection.  If 
this  holds  good  of  the  prune,  why  not  of  other  stone 
fruits;  why  not  also  apply  it  to  the  pomaceous 
ning  characteristics,  and  other  conditions  as  may  be 
warranted  by  such  a  large  specialized  business  as 
horticulture  is  getting  to  be,  not  only  in  California, 
but  also  in  a  number  of  other  States.  Just  what 
method  should  be  followed  in  propagating  meritori¬ 
ous  varieties  and  strains  of  fruit  is  hardly  possible 
to  define  at  the  present  time,  nevertheless  much  of 
the  confusion  which  frequently  arises  with  a  new 
and  worthy  fruit  can  be  avoided  if  first  tested  out 
by  the  originator  and  then  submitted  to  State  and 
Federal  governmental  experts  with  a  view  to  def¬ 
initely  defining  its  particular  uses  and  values,  and 
in  what  particular  it  differs  from  those  already  in 
the  market.  If  bud  selection  is  feasible  with  citrus 
trees,  why  not  with  deciduous?  The  experience  of 
California  observers  bears  out  the  opinion  that  it  is  a 
working  proposition,  which  is  in  large  measure  dem¬ 
onstrated  by  the  uniform  quality  of  our  fruit  and 
fruit  food  products  and  the  dominant  position  they 
hold  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 
RELIABLE  SOURCES  OF  SUPPLIES.  —  The 
practical  application  of  bud  selection  in  the  growing 
of  nursery  fruit  trees  calls  for  skill,  judgment  and 
some  detail.  Obviously  records  should  cover  a  per¬ 
iod  of  years.  In  the  case  of  citrus  fruit  in  Cali- 
