122 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Frs., 1898. 
SELECTION OF SCION. 
In order to produce the best fruit (and by the best fruit I meanythat 
which is of most value commercially, and which pays the grower best),'it is 
absolutely necessary that the same care shall be exercised in the propagation 
of the tree as the successful breeder of stock takes for the raising of horses, 
cattle, sheep, or other live stock; and just as the successful breeding ‘of 
_stock depends on the careful selection of the sire and dam, so the successful 
pe tela of the best fruit depends on the careful selection of the stock 
and scion. 
One of the best known laws of Nature, both as regards the propagation 
of animals or plants, is that like produces like, and that by a careful selection 
of and propagating only from the best that both animals and plants become 
improyed, This being so, it therefore stands to reason that the greater the care 
that is taken in the selection of the scion, be it bud, graft, or cutting, the 
greater the chance that the tree produced from such scion will produce fruit of 
equal quality to the parent tree from which the scion was obtained, and, if the 
stock has been selected as well, then that the tree resulting from the union of 
such stock and scion may be superior to the parent tree. 
As the scion, when united with the stock, becomes eventually the entire 
fruit-producing portion of the tree, it is impossible to over-estimate the 
importance of selecting the best scions—for as the scion is so will the tree 
be. This isa point that is often overlooked by Australian propagators, as in 
many instances the only care that is taken is to see that the scion is of the 
desired variety that it is wished to propagate, irrespective of the source from 
which the scion has been obtained; and this, in my opinion, is largely the cause 
of the deterioration that is taking place-in many of our standard varieties of 
fruits, especially those of the Citrus family. 
Thousands of fruit trees of various kinds are annually propagated from 
scions that are more or less valueless, as they lack one or more of the following 
qualifications, which should always be taken into consideration when selecting 
the scion:— 
Always select your scions from a pefectly healthy tree, as many diseases 
are transmitted by the scion. 
Always select your scions from a tree that produces heavy crops of the 
best fruit. 
Always select your scions from trees that are good growers and that 
possess @ vigorous constitution. Never select a scion from any tree that is 
poor in any way—either a poor or uncertain bearer, a poor, uneven, or weakly 
grower, that is subject to any diseases that are directly transmitted, such as 
gum, curl-leaf of the peach, or small leaf of the lemon, or that is badly attacked 
by any scale insect or fungus—as such trees are usually constitutionally weak, 
for the weaker the constitution of the tree, the more liable it is to disease. 
As to the scion itself, if a graft, see that the wood is properly matured, or, if a 
bud, then that the bud is full—viz., properly developed—as immature grafts or 
buds rarely produce vigorous trees. 
One of the great questions the Australian fruitgrower has to deal with at 
present is to find a market for a large quantity of inferior and medium quality 
fruits, but, despite this fact, nurserymen are annually propagating thousands 
of trees of absolutely worthless varieties—trees waich sien they come into 
bearing will only produce fruit of inferior quality ; and instead of gradually 
diminishing the output of rubbish, and thus relieving our markets of this 
unsaleable fruit, our growers continue to plant trees for the produce of which 
there is no demand, nor is there any chance of their being any, as throughout 
the world the demand is for first-class fruit, no matter whether it is fresh, 
dried, canned, or otherwise preserved. 
