LXVII 
LAZY TREES 
I SN’T IT ODD that of two trees in an orchard, seem¬ 
ingly from the very same stock, one will bear twice 
as much fruit as the other! 
No less strange is the fact that the skilled orchardist 
has found a way to convert the light-bearing tree into an 
exact twin to the heavy-bearing tree. 
It is true, even, that certain limbs of a tree bear more 
heavily than other limbs. The orchardist, in this situa¬ 
tion, too, has found a way to take advantage of these par¬ 
ticularly productive limbs and build up whole groves of 
trees that have their qualities. 
The first step in accomplishing these ends is to find out 
which trees bear heavily and which lightly. Scientific 
citrus fruit growers have been numbering the trees of 
their orchards of late and then keeping a record of the 
fruit they yield year after year. Thus is it soon estab¬ 
lished that certain of them are working hard and faith¬ 
fully and certain of them are loafing on the job. Certain 
trees are profitable, and others do not pay their keep. 
In most citrus orchards the roots of the trees are of 
some vigorous stock, and there has been budded on this 
stock some other variety that has desirable fruit qualities. 
The best orchardists now use buds not only from trees 
that have fruit-bearing records but from the very 
branches that have borne abundant fruit. 
But the most interesting application of the selection, 
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