The Florida star., 1902-08-15
Texas AHEAD ON HARDY ORANGES.
Experiments Already Made There Prove
Very Successful.

The following communication from G.
Marti, Houston, Texas, is not only ex-
tremely interesting in its subject, but is a
most worthy model for the reports of en-
thusiastic plant-breeders, who are likely
20 dwell solely on the apparent merits Of
their productions, regardless of possible
important defects. The national depart
ment of agriculture, as Mr.. Marti re-
marks, has also undertaken the work of
hybridizing citrus trifoliata with varieties
of commercial orange, with the idea of
breeding harder type of the latter. The
government experiments are well under
way. Many successful crosses have been
made, and are now growing in Florida
count of their fruiting. Mr.. Marti's ac-
count, therefore, is probably the first
given to the public on this interesting
subject. We should think, in view of the
great recent improvement in citrus fruits,
that the quest for reasonably frost-prOOf
edible orange from the hardy trifoliate
species is not by any means hopeless:
|
the idea that by infnsing the blood of the
hardy citrus trifoiata in the common
orange we might be able To create per-
fectly blizzard proof, edible orange. Since
then | learned that the agricultural de-
partment in Washington is conducting
experiments on the same line. 1t was
not until last fall that | Lad the satsfac-
ton of seeing the outcome of such a cross,
resulting in three fruits. This cross WAS
made upon the Satsuma, or OOnshiu or
ange, a dwartish variety of the Mandarin
kind thOrnlesS, pretty nearly seedlesS,
and of the best quality. The tree is in
| ldisputably the hardest of all edible
oranges, and came originally from Japan.
| While | made Il good many other crosses,
/ this Is the only one | was able To raise of
this parentage. 10 prepotent the wild
cross took almost every feature of the
/ pollen parent, with its th0rns, deciduous
triple leaves, and hardy constitution.
| However, the fruit differs widely from
| both parents. 1t Is perfectly round, being
| depressed neither in its blossom nor on
its stem end; diameter both ways 81
| inches. 1t has a roughish but even sur
/ face. The color is deep yellow or orange.
| The rnd is extremely thin, merely
-kin, but tough, adhering closely to the
! flesh, whirh l. of greenish yellow. 1t
| l. very Juicy and sweet, having just acid
enough To make it Sprightly aud refresh
! Iug and of far better quality than the nv
erage California Seeding Orange. The
| fruit, however, ripens late later than
| that OF any ot ltS parents. 1t contained
! three or four seeds These, however, are
probably the result OF hand -pollenizatiun
with i hybrid of another parentage. Left
To itself, il likely would he secdlc,>. like
| one ut H. parents, since It's blossoms seem
to ht entirely destitute of pollen The
greatest disSimilarity between the fruit of
| this hybrid AMI those of its parents, how
ever, Is to be found in the formation of
the cuIyN. On the citrus trifnliata this
consists of five leafy deciduouS SepaIs.
dropping with the petals: on the orange il
forms rim with five small teeth upon il:
ON this hybrid, however, there are five
large fohate, persistent sepals, which
keep green, and never drop, even when
thr fruit ripenS.
"By some accident | lost the original
tree. have, however, two healthy traits
growing from it. | have other hvbrids;
most of them bloOmed this spring. but all
| the flowers turned ont To be- without a
pi>til, and consequently sterile These
! hybrlds are CROSSES of the dwarf type Of
the Mandarin Or citrus trifDiiata. They
all seem 10 take more of the Mandarin
blood than the first mentioned iruited
hybrid. They are all trifoliate, hut some
of them proved tn be a. tender rs the
orange, So that in the memorable blizzard
winter, lSg9 when the temperature fell
down 10 two degrees above zero, il put
them at once 10 Il severe test, and uut Of
about 80 trees there were only about a
dozen which were able To run the gaunt-
let of this cold snap. All the Others per
l>hed. There l. another serious draw back
about these la>t-meutiOned hvbrids Even
il they would he hardy in the dormant
state, they push out too soon in the spring.
and are subject 10 the baneful effects of
late froStS The SatSuma hybrid, hoWev.
rr, Is different from all of these i'm that
regard. Ii l. the latest of all citrus 10
leaf out, later than its parents, and the
above mentioned cold snG~ did not have
the least effect even on It's most tender
buds and eXtremities. 1t has, however,
one fault; that Is, the lack of the orange
aroma in the rind. Instead of this il has
the rank odor which you so fifty described
as characteristic of the average California
orange. These experiments so far con-
vince me that, strictly speaking, by these
means We shall never Ice able tO oct q