154 FLORIDA FRUITS LEMONS. 



There are exceptions to this rule, however, as we shall 

 see presently, when we come to note the different varieties. 



The culture of the lemon in those of the United States 

 adapted for its growth Florida, Louisiana, and Southern 

 California has not yet received the attention due to its 

 national importance ; on the contrary, it has been greatly 

 neglected. 



This state of affairs is largely due to a prevailing opin- 

 ion that it is useless to try to compete with the foreign or 

 Mediterranean lemon ; and certainly the latter is far supe- 

 rior in quality to the orange from the same localities, a fact 

 abundantly proved by recent statistics, which show an 

 enormous increase in the importations during the last few 

 years, and a corresponding decrease in the amount of 

 oranges brought into this country. 



Now, there is no reason whatever why the hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars annually sent out by the United 

 States in exchange for this popular and necessary fruit 

 should not be kept at home, and go to enrich our own cit- 

 izens rather than foreigners. 



The whole trouble has originated, first, in the inexperi- 

 ence of the growers in properly gathering and curing the 

 lemon for market; second, in the general and erroneous 

 impression that the lemon tree is more liable to become 

 diseased than the orange; third, the fact that nearly all 

 seedling lemon trees bear fruit with a rind so bitter and 

 coarse as to be unfit for market ; and fourth, in a totally 

 mistaken idea on the part of the growers as to the kind of 

 lemon most popular in the markets. 



But latterly, our people have waked up to the impor- 

 tance of the subject, and these old-time rocks in the sea 

 of lemon culture are being at last blown to atoms before 

 the "Hercules powder" of investigation and common- 

 sense. 



