The Florida agriculturist., 1907-12-11
Improvement of the Navel Orange.

variety has been found which was suttl-
GENTLY productive to be as profitable as
other varieties Yet it is an acknoWl-
lodged fact that, as rule, the navel
varieties are superior in quality to the
common kinds. AS the best navel or
anges are seed1ess, there has been
little or no attempt to improve them.
A professor in the University Of Cali
fornia wrote an article that was printed
in the California Fruit Grower, recent
1y, in which he takes the ground that
the navel is capable of considerable i'm
provement by selection Of buds from
trees and branches which have the de-
sired characteristics. There is no
doubt that he is correct, and here is
field for experiment which our orange
growers should enter at once and see
what they can accomplish. The article
is as follows:
When the writer first visited the or
ange growing sections Of the state, he
found community of hortcu1turists
which for intelligence it would be ex
ceedingly hard to duplicate anywhere.
The man who did things without know
ing the why and wherefore was found
to be the exception, for the majority
of the grove-owners, besides having.
splendid practical knowledge of the
successful working Of orchards, also
appeared very we'll versed in the the
oretica1 principles which governed their
practice They made mistakes of
course, but it seemed that their mis-
takes were comparatively infrequent
compared to the errors of orchardists
in other parts. There is prevalent
among the orange growers, however,
one misconception which is held nearly
universally, namely, that the Navel or
ange is incapable of further improve
ment because of the nonproduction Of
, seed. The really careful observer will
label the conception erroneous imme-
diate1y and would probably direct atten-
ton to the following points.
First and foremost he would point
OUT that while the great majority of
plants have been improved by utilizing
the sexual method of reproduction,
there are, nevertheless, large number
of examples where the Improvement
has been brought about by the sc1ec-
ton of vegetable parts. Taking the OBJ
served fact in conjunction with the
variability of vegetable parts and the
adoption of budding as the method Of
Dropagating the orange. we have at
hand all that is required to show that
the Improvement of the Navel orange
is independent of seed production
In walking through the groves there
can be seen here and there trees which
are bearing a type Of fruit rather
closer the growers ideal than are
the other trees, and this, not because
of the more favorable conditions under
which the tree is growing, but because
of some inherent trait in the tree it.
self. If these trees are closely inspect
ed there will often be found upon them
a branch which is bearing somewhat
superior fruit to that of the other
branches and upon these branches will
be found buds which will appear plump
or and better nourished than their fell
lows.
Every orchard contains such trees.
vet if one visits the nurseries he will
quickly notice that the buds used for
working the stocks are taken from any
11'nd 0f tree nearly always those which
furnish good bud-sticks, and little or
no attention is given to selection Of
buds for specific characters.
This is a neglect of opportunity, for
undoubtedly in jurisdiction there
lays the possibility of making the Ma
vel orange an even more splendid
fruit than it is today. The selection
can be made for quite VARIETY of char