Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


rough lemon stock is used on the heavier soils, which is rarely
done, the fruit does not dry out so fast, although it does not
retain its juice content as long as when budded on sour orange
stock. The Temple orange on rough lemon stock, at least on the
lighter soils, commonly dries out readily at or shortly after ma-
turity. The tendency for this fruit to dry out prematurely is
much less pronounced when budded on sour orange stock, es-
pecially when planted on heavier soils. In the case of Valencias


 Fig. 72.-Internal drying of Temple orange.

on sour orange or Cleopatra mandarin stock, on soils well sup-
plied with moisture, the fruit usually remains juicy until August.
It is quite obvious that deficits of soil moisture are directly re-
lated to the tendency of fruit to become dry.
 It has been demonstrated that citrus fruits may act as reser-
voirs for the leaves and that when the roots fail to supply ade-
quately the transpiration demand of the leaves for water, the
leaves begin to withdraw it from the fruits. Under conditions
of low humidity and high temperature, the leaves may begin to