Show valuable bud sports may be lost by not labeling fruit growers should always be on on the watch for limbs of their trees that bear unusually desirable fruit or that bear at unusual times say fruit specialists of the united states department part ment of agriculture it is probable that many desirable variations in some of our fruit crops have been lost through the pruning knife merely because they were not marked for preservation er these bud sports or variants are of scientific interest and may prove of commercial value if preserved it is probable scientists think that the washington navel orange was a variant on a brazilian tree the marsh seedless grapefruit variety may have bave originated as a sport some of the deciduous fruits have also prod produced variants of value recently members of the department on the pacific coast inspected a variant of a standard plum which ripens a superior fruit about six weeks later than the main crop in this case the owner of the orchard had realized that a fruit ripening after the main crop had been sold might have special market value and had propagated from the limb variant so that the variety may be preserved |